A Window to the Past
by CMarie1227
Summary: Sequel to 'A Difficult Kind'. After the events that transpired, Brenda goes back to London, Brandon gets an incredible opportunity, and Dylan struggles with himself. Will they be able to overcome what they've been through and get on with their lives?
1. Chapter 1

_This is the sequel to 'A Difficult Kind'._

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 1**

_London_

Brenda walks back to her apartment after meeting with her agent. She had taken a meeting with the producer and director of the play she was involved in before she had to flee the country and go back to California.

They wanted to hear it from her exactly what happened, since all they received was a signed notice of Brenda's unavailability on FBI letterhead.

'My brother and a few of my friends from back home were in trouble. The FBI thought that whoever was after them would also be after me, so they took me into custody for my own protection. There was nothing I could do about it and they said that they would handle telling you what had happened,' Brenda explains.

'You don't even know how sorry I am that I had to leave without any notice at all,' she says.

'We understand that part, Brenda. We really do feel sorry for you and for our audience, since opening night was the best night of the entire run of the show,' the director says.

'Thank you for understanding. My family comes before everything else in my life and this was unfortunately unavoidable. Everything seems to be back to normal now, though,' she confirms.

'Welcome back, Brenda. I truly hope that we will cross paths again,' the producer says. He shakes her hand and they leave the room.

'Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be,' Brenda's agent says.

'Yeah, right,' she says staring at the door, 'I'll never get another offer from them again.'

Brenda leaves her agent's office with a lot less confidence than she had when she walked in that morning. She reaches her apartment and goes inside. She checks her computer and reads an email from Brandon. He lets her know again and again that it was great to see her and that he's so glad that they finally worked everything out between them.

He had been trying to find an internship for the spring semester to get his career moving and had been on several interviews, but nothing had turned up yet.

Brenda smiles and closes her computer. It had been a month since the Marchette incident and Brandon had been very good at communicating with her almost daily.

She had heard from Dylan a few times from Hawaii as well. He told her that he was enjoying the rest and relaxation at his mother's house, but that she was starting to get on his nerves.

Brenda looks around her apartment and tries to remember what it was like before Dylan and Iris showed up and turned her life upside down. She kind of missed having them around and was battling with some feelings of loneliness and maybe a little regret.

She sits on the couch and sighs as she resigns herself to being alone again.

_Casa Walsh – a few days later_

Brandon runs into the house with a letter in his hand. He quickly drops whatever else he is carrying on the floor in the foyer and rips open the letter. He reads it as quickly as he can and starts jumping up and down.

'Yes! Yes! Yes!' he yells out loud.

He runs right to the phone and dials.

'Brenda, you are not going to believe this!' he says when she answers.

'Wow, Brandon, how are you? I'm fine, nice to hear from you,' Brenda starts saying.

'Not now, Bren, this is too important,' he says. 'I just got a letter from a political newspaper in D.C. offering me an intern job for the entire spring semester!'

'Oh, Brandon, that's great! I'm so proud of you,' Brenda says with excitement.

'Looks like you won't be the only one living the dream, Bren, I'm going back to Washington,' he says proudly.

'I'm so happy for you, Brandon. Are you going to get enough credit for it? When does it start?' Brenda asks him.

Brandon was so excited with the offer that he didn't even read that far down the letter.

'Two weeks, looks like I've got some packing to do,' Brandon says. 'I will get some credit for it, but I will probably have to take a few summer classes to catch up. I am so excited!'

Brenda laughs at her brother.

'Oh, Bren, on a more serious note, guess what happened this morning?' Brandon says.

'What's that?'

'Nat came out of hiding,' he tells her.

'He was hiding? Oh, thank God, I was really worried about him,' Brenda says.

'Yeah, we all were. Apparently, there is an underground bunker or something underneath the Peach Pit that he had locked himself into. He would come out at night and read the papers trying to figure out whether or not it was safe. He finally decided that he didn't care and just popped up one morning during the breakfast shift,' Brandon says.

'Amazing, I'm so glad he's alright. So the only one still missing from that horrible debacle is Valerie. Has anyone heard anything?' Brenda asks.

'Not a thing. I don't think she's coming back, Bren. After what she did, I wouldn't be surprised if we never hear from her again.'

'Well, Brandon, I have to go and you have to get packing. Email me with your information when you get to Washington, okay? Good luck and have a safe trip,' Brenda says.

'Will do,' Brandon says and hangs up the phone.

Brenda's phone rings again a few minutes after she hangs up with Brandon. She stares at it and laughs, thinking it's him.

'What did you forget to tell me, Brandon?' she says into the phone.

'Brenda?' she hears her agent's voice.

'Oh, sorry,' Brenda sighs, 'I thought you were someone else.'

'Listen, I have a touring group that needs a lead. They're performing 'The Taming of the Shrew' and the actress playing Kate just dropped out with influenza. It pays decently and it's a short run,' her agent says.

'When do they take off?' Brenda asks.

'Next Monday and it goes for two weeks. Do you think you could learn it by then? It's a lot of lines, but I know that you've done this play before, that's why I called. No one else can learn these lines that quickly,' he tells her.

Brenda looks around her house one more time and feels the emptiness in her chest. 'Um, yeah, okay, I'll do it. Where does the tour go?'

'Ireland and Scotland,' he says. 'I'll have the arrangements set up and send them to you.'

'Sounds good, thanks,' Brenda says.

Brenda puts the phone down and goes searching for her script from the last time she was in 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

_Hawaii_

Dylan and Iris sit at the table eating breakfast together. Dylan takes a sip of coffee and looks up at his mother.

'I'm really glad I came down here, Mom,' he says to her.

Iris smiles at her son and puts her hand on top of his. 'I am too, Dylan. I'm glad you have had some time to just relax and deal with everything that's happened.'

'Yeah, well, most of it at least,' Dylan says, staring down at his plate.

'Right,' Iris says, nodding her head, 'there is one thing that hasn't been resolved yet.'

Dylan stares at his mother. They have been through every moment of the Marchette situation with each other, with the exception of Dylan's relationship with Brenda.

'Dylan, it's been a month, don't you think getting some of those feelings off your chest would be helpful?' Iris asks him.

'I'm sure it would be helpful, but once it's out there,' Dylan starts to say.

'Once it's out there you have to deal with it, right? As long as it stays inside you can just ignore it and hope that it just goes away,' Iris finishes for him.

Dylan closes his eyes slowly and sighs.

'Dylan, sweetheart, I don't know that this helps in any way, but I really had high hopes for the two of you this time around,' Iris says.

'Thanks, Mom, that doesn't help at all,' Dylan tells her.

Dylan rests his head on his hand and stares down at the table.

'To tell you the truth, I have never felt better about my relationship with her than I did when we were in London together. It was almost surreal though, considering all of the other things that were going on at the time. I wanted to believe that what was going on between us was legitimate, but I just couldn't convince myself that that was true.'

'Dylan, besides you two sleeping together right before you left,' Iris starts to say.

Dylan's head shoots up off of his hand and he stares wide-eyed at his mother.

'Oh, please, Dylan, I'm not stupid and I do have ears, you know?' she says. 'Anyway, besides that, did anything else happen between you two that you could put in the real column?'

Dylan thinks about his time with Brenda in London. He starts to smile and looks over at his mother.

'Yeah, there was at least one real moment,' Dylan says. 'We left the house after you kicked us out to let you decipher one of the weird notes. We went to Hyde Park and sat down on one of the benches facing a pond of some kind.'

_Flashback_

'_I told you that I'd always be here for you, Dylan, no matter what is going on,' she says._

'_You know, you are the only one who really has been. After everything that we went through together, I always knew deep down that you were meant to be in my life,' he says sincerely._

Present Time

Dylan describes the slow, deliberate, tentative kiss that they shared. Iris gets a chill up her spine just hearing him describe the scene.

'After that we got up and started walking out of the park,' Dylan says. His mind tries to remember her touch and the feel of her fingers laced with his.

After a few seconds, Iris sees the color drain from Dylan's face and a scared look comes into his eyes.

'Dylan, what's the matter?'

'Oh my God, as we were leaving the park, one of her friends stopped us. He was the one that had been giving me a hard time ever since I showed up. There was definitely something wrong with that guy,' Dylan says quickly.

'Which one?' Iris asks, trying to remember Brenda's friends.

'Beau,' Dylan says with hatred in his voice. Dylan feels a knot start to form in his stomach and he kicks himself for not remembering sooner.

'I've got to warn her, what if he was in cahoots with Marchette? What if he was the one following you guys around? What if he tries to hurt her now that she's back in her apartment all by herself?' Dylan starts to freak out.

He gets up quickly and runs to the phone. He dials Brenda's number when he hears the click of her answering machine turning on he slams the phone down.

'Damn!' he says.

'Dylan, calm down, if Brenda was in trouble she would have said so when we talked to her a few days ago.'

Dylan thinks about what his mother just said. 'Maybe you're right. I'm still going to ask her about him though. I have a bad feeling about that guy.'

Dylan gets on the computer and sends Brenda an email.

He stares at the computer for a few minutes expecting a reply right away.

'Dylan, please, give her a break. I'm sure she's not staring at her computer or something in the hope that she'll get an email from you. Just relax, I'm sure she's fine,' Iris tells him.

'Can't you do some fancy card tricks and tell me if she's okay?' Dylan spits at this mother, continuing to stare at the computer screen.

'First of all, lose the tone, and second of all, that's not what the cards are for,' Iris says, leaving the table.

_Brenda's Apartment_

Brenda comes out of her bedroom with her luggage and puts it by the door. She grabs her keys and a backpack and opens the door.

She hands her suitcase to the taxi driver and goes back in to make sure she didn't forget anything. She passes right by her phone on the way out of her apartment, not noticing the missed call on the display.

She gets in the taxi to start her two week tour with 'The Taming of the Shrew'.

_Casa Walsh – a week later_

'Oh, Brandon, we're going to miss you!' Donna says, throwing her arms around him.

'Thanks, Donna, I'm going to miss you guys too,' Brandon says, putting the last of his bags by the front door.

'I can't believe you're leaving us,' Kelly says with a sad face.

'Come on, Kel, it's time to go out and get some real world experience,' he says with a smile.

'I'll wait until I'm out of college for that,' she says.

'Ah, you're loss,' he says. He shakes hands with Steve and they hug each other.

'Don't worry, guys, it's only for the semester. I'll be back for the summer,' he says.

They all give him skeptical looks as he grabs his bags and opens the front door.

'Okay, off I go,' he says, 'Take care of the house for me, okay, Steve?'

'You got it, Brandon,' he says.

They follow Brandon out to his car and watch him pack it up.

'I can't believe you're actually going to drive across the country,' Kelly says.

'One more adventure,' Brandon says. He gets in and starts the car. He backs out of the driveway and waves to them as he takes off down the street.

'I can't believe they're gone,' Donna says to the ground.

'What do you mean 'they'?' Steve asks her.

'Brandon and Brenda,' she says. 'They came into our lives in a whirlwind and now they're both gone.'

'They'll be back, Donna,' Kelly says.

'Yeah, right, Brandon might be back, but I think we've lost Brenda forever.'

'Don't say that, Donna. I know she thinks her life is complete over there in London, but she'll realize that she needs us as much as we need her,' Kelly says.

'I hope you're right about that, Kel, I miss her,' Donna says.

Kelly puts her arm around Donna and pulls her into a hug. Steve wraps his arms around both of them and they stand in the driveway hugging each other in the shadow of an empty Casa Walsh.

Brandon starts the trek across the country to his new home for the next four months. He lets the wind blow his hair around and the stress and emotional drain of the last few months leave his body as he drives farther and farther away from Beverly Hills.

_Ireland_

Brenda stands on the stage after their last show in Ireland taking her bow. The crowd is on their feet and as she bows she enjoys the heat of the lights and the excitement of performing well in her heart.

She runs off of the stage as the curtain goes down and shares a hug with the rest of the cast.

'This was our best performance yet. Brenda, you were incredible. Thank you for covering for me, I don't know what happened, but I just lost it there for a minute,' the girl playing Bianca tells her.

Brenda smiles at her and puts her arm around the girl's shoulders. 'Don't worry about it,' she says and hugs her.

'Okay, guys, let's get cleaned up and start tearing this set down. We've got to be on the bus in four hours,' the director says.

'Ugh,' Brenda says out loud and goes back to the dressing room.

_The Beach Apartment_

'Kelly, come on, you've been sulking for three days already,' Donna says, staring at her friend sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket and staring at the wall.

'I know, I'm sorry,' Kelly says without moving.

'Since when were you this hung up on Brandon?' she asks her.

'It's not just Brandon, Donna. I've been thinking a lot about what you said about Brenda and Brandon coming into our lives like little tornados and now they really are gone,' she says, 'at least for a little while.'

Donna sits down next to Kelly and puts her arm around Kelly's shoulders.

'Are you saying that you miss Brenda too?'

'As much as I don't want to admit that in any way, I kind of do miss her. She kept me on my toes with some of the things she used to say and do,' Kelly admits.

Donna rolls her eyes a little bit and turns her head enough so that Kelly doesn't see her.

'Come on, Kel, be honest, are you a little upset that there's no guy in your life right now?' Donna asks her.

Kelly looks at her with confusion. 'What does that have to do with what we are talking about?'

'Well, I've been around for a long time and it seems to me that when Brenda is happy with someone, you've got to compete with her in some way. That's what's been missing,' Donna says honestly.

'Donna, Brenda isn't with anyone right now and I really don't think that has anything to do with it,' Kelly says, getting a little annoyed.

'With everything that happened to us and her over the last few months, I'd be surprised if we don't find out that she's gotten back together with Dylan,' Donna says with confidence.

'They didn't seem too into each other over Christmas,' Kelly says.

'Kel, what's really going on?' Donna asks her softly.

Kelly sighs and tightens her arms around her legs.

'I think it's Brandon,' she says at a whisper. 'I'm not sure what brought it on, but I can't stop thinking about him.'

Donna smiles at her. 'I thought so. Well, you'll have plenty of time to figure out what to say to him when he gets back.'

'I don't think I can wait that long,' she tells Donna.

_On the Road – Scotland_

The bus had been traveling for a few hours. Brenda had tried to sleep, but couldn't keep her mind for running a million miles a minute. She pulls out her cell phone and goes to dial when she realizes that it has run out of battery power.

'Damn,' she says to herself. She wanted to call Brandon and see if he got to Washington, D.C. alright. She'd just have to wait until she got home, since she left the charger for her phone sitting on the kitchen table.

_Hawaii_

'Dylan, please stop doing that, you're making me dizzy,' Iris says, watching him walk back and forth.

Dylan stops for a second, looks at his mother, and then continues to pace.

'It's been a week, why hasn't she contacted me?' he says, mostly to himself.

'Oh, honey, you have got to stop worrying about her like this. She is a grown woman who can take care of herself,' Iris tells him.

'Mom, I'm just a little concerned, that's all,' he tells her.

'That's not all, Dylan. You know better than I do that there's more here than you're telling me,' Iris says.

Dylan sighs and finally sits at the table with his mother.

'I can't stop thinking about the last time I saw her, walking away from me in the airport. After everything that has happened, I'm not even sure if she ever wants to see me again,' he tells Iris.

'Where did you get that idea, honey?' she asks.

'Before she left to go back to London, we had a talk. I was having trouble sleeping and I couldn't stop thinking about how much I thought I wanted her to be in my arms. She said that it may have been carryover from the emotional rollercoaster we had just been on that I should take some time to figure out exactly what I wanted,' he says.

'Have you?'

Dylan looks at his mother and shakes his head. 'No,' he says. 'I thought that spending time here and being able to relax would calm my mind down enough to really think about it, but I haven't figured anything out. All I know for sure is that I have a knot in the pit of my stomach and it won't go away until I know that she's safe.'

'Well, Dylan, you can sit here and worry yourself about it or,' Iris suggests.

Dylan's eyes shoot right to his mother's face. She is smiling at him warmly and nodding her head.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 2**

Brandon moves his few belongings into an apartment that the company had found for him. He looks out the third floor window down at the bustle of the city streets and smiles to himself.

'I think I'm going to like it here,' he says with his hands on his hips.

Brandon shows up for work the next morning and meets with his supervisor.

'Brandon, it's good to finally meet you,' Darryl says. 'I'm so glad that we worked it out for you to stay the entire semester. You're really going to learn a lot working here. Are you excited to get started?'

'Absolutely, just point me in the right direction,' Brandon says and follows Darryl through a sea of cubicles.

'This is where you'll be sitting for the duration of your stay with us. Right across from you is George and right next to you is Amy. You'll be on their team,' Darryl says.

Brandon shakes hands with George as Amy comes around the corner. Brandon looks up to see one of the most beautiful faces attached to one of the sexiest bodies he's ever seen. She flashes Brandon a smile and bites her lip slightly while shaking his hand.

'George has been with us for seven years and Amy joined the team just a few weeks ago. You will spend most of your time up on Capital Hill bringing in any stories we can get our hands on,' Darryl explains.

'Why don't you explain to Brandon what's going on and take him with you when you go meet the Senator this afternoon,' Darryl suggests to George.

'Sure, Darryl, no problem,' George says, 'Brandon, come have a seat and tell me all about yourself.'

Brandon gets home from his first day of work and drops down on the couch. He stares at the ceiling seeing images of Amy floating by.

'Damn,' he says out loud. 'How am I going to get through the day with that in front of me?'

The phone rings and Brandon slowly gets up off of the couch to answer it.

'Brandon! How's it hanging in the nation's capital?' he hears Steve's voice through the receiver.

'Hey, Steve, it's amazing so far. You are not going to believe what they have me doing and who they have me doing it with,' Brandon says with excitement.

'Oh, do tell,' he says.

_Scotland_

'Brenda, what's wrong? I thought the performance was great tonight,' one of her cast mates says to her.

They had gone out to a pub and were trying to wind down from the show. Brenda was unknowingly staring off into space and not really contributing to the conversations going on around her.

Brenda snaps out of her thoughts at the sound of her name.

'Oh, sorry, Glen, I was caught up in a daydream,' she says with a weak smile.

'Are you alright?' he asks her.

'Yeah, I'm just worried. I don't have my phone since the battery died and my brother was driving across the United States for a job in Washington, D.C. I guess I'm just distracted not knowing if he made it alright,' she tells him.

'Well, you and your brother must be pretty close for you to worry about him like that,' Glen says to her.

Brenda smiles for the first time in a long time. 'It's unavoidable, Glen, we're twins,' she says with a laugh.

'Ah,' he says smiling back, 'I see. I had no idea you were a twin. I know one set of twins and they are completely inseparable,' he says.

'Yeah, well, we were like that when we were younger, but we haven't felt like that since middle school,' she tells him.

'Well, I think it's different when you have a brother and sister set too. I can understand now why you're so worried. You must have that freaky twin connection, like astral lines crossed,' he says.

Brenda opens her eyes wider as he speaks. 'Astral lines? Okay, that's a little too weird for me,' she says with a laugh.

'Of course it is, but I got you to laugh, and that is enough for me,' he says holding up his drink.

She taps his glass with her own and takes a sip. She finishes her beer and looks around the table.

'It's time for me to take off, guys. Good show tonight, see you tomorrow,' Brenda says and goes back to the hotel.

She sits in her room at the desk with a piece of paper and a pen. 'Okay, Brenda, we're going old school here actually writing a letter with a pen,' she says smiling to herself.

She dates the top of the page and writes 'Dear Brandon'.

She continues to write for the better part of an hour and four pages later, stretches her hand and yawns. She puts the pen down and gets ready for bed.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon works closely with George and Amy getting to know their contacts on the Hill and doing background research for the story that George is currently working on.

Amy decided that since he was new in town and had only been here once before that she would take him on the grand tour of the city.

'That right there is the best coffee shop in town. Make no mistake, there are many imposters out there, but that right there is the best, hands down,' she says smiling at him.

'I don't know about that, I may have to make that decision for myself,' he says.

'Okay, if I'm right, you have to do something for me,' she says playfully.

'Oh, yeah,' Brandon says smiling back at her, 'what would that be?'

'Go with me to the opening of the new art exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery tomorrow night,' she says.

Brandon starts to nod his head and says, 'You're on.'

_The Beach Apartment_

'Okay, so what are we doing tonight, Kelly?' Donna asks her.

'We are meeting up with Steve to talk about the fundraising event that KEG and the Alphas are throwing next week and then, I don't know,' she says, brushing her hair.

'Another fundraiser? Is it going to be boring like the last one?' Donna whines.

'Of course not, they put Steve in charge. I think they're going to let us do the Greek Olympic Games,' Kelly says with a smile.

'Oh, well, that should be interesting. How many drinking contests will there be at these Olympic Games?' Donna asks laughing.

Kelly laughs along with her and puts her brush back into the bathroom.

'Come on, we're going to be late,' she says grabbing Donna's hand and pulling her off of the couch.

They drive down to the Peach Pit and meet Steve for dinner.

'Oh my God, he actually looks prepared,' Kelly says when they walk in and see Steve sitting at one of the tables with a notebook and a folder full of papers.

'Hey Steve, what is all of this stuff?' Donna asks him.

'Oh, Donna, I have been waiting for the okay to go ahead with this for the last year. I can't even tell you how excited I am,' he says and starts pulling papers from the folder.

'Did you draw these yourself, Steve?' Kelly asks him, holding up several drawings of what looked like different kinds of games.

'Of course I did, Kelly,' he says with a straight face. After a few seconds of silence, they all start to laugh at the same time.

'No way, I had a freshman do it,' he says. 'Okay, so I'm thinking Olympics meets Carnivale.'

'Oh God,' Kelly says out loud.

'Hear me out Kel, it's a good idea,' Steve says preparing his papers to convince Kelly.

They talk for a few hours about Steve's idea for the Greek Games fundraiser.

'Okay, I wasn't too keen on the idea in the beginning, but I think the way you have this set up that it could actually work,' Kelly says.

'Yeah, you put a lot of thought into this, Steve,' Donna says.

'Thanks, guys, I knew you'd come around,' he says with a beaming smile.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon spends the next few days running around the city doing research during the day and seeing the sights with Amy at night.

He gets home on Friday night after going to a club with her and sits on the couch. He smiles to himself at how easy this relationship is and how much he's enjoying his time with her.

It had been a while since he was actually able to put his flirting skills to some use and he was enjoying the chase.

_Scotland_

After an exhausting final performance, Brenda changes her clothes and helps the crew take the set down. They load all of the props, costumes, and set pieces onto the bus and start the long trek back to London.

She finally gets to her house on Sunday afternoon after helping to unload the van and saying goodbye to everyone.

She drops all of her bags right by the front door and sighs.

'Wow, it's good to be home,' she says out loud, looking around her apartment. She goes immediately to her computer to see if Brandon happened to contact her while she was away.

She opens her inbox and sees the email from Dylan from two weeks ago. She smiles at his concern for her safety and then starts to think about Beau. She hadn't seen or heard from him since the night of the performance before she and Iris left London to go back to California.

She had met up with Paige, Brent, and Wyatt when she got back to London and she realizes now that they didn't mention him at all.

She hits reply on Dylan's message and starts to type. She tells him that she hasn't actually seen him at all and that she was perfectly fine when she hears a loud, persistent knock on her front door.

She jumps a little at the sound and slowly moves to the door to answer it. She pulls it open and gasps out loud when she sees a very panicked Dylan standing in front of her.

She opens her mouth to say something, but doesn't get the chance when he steps forward and pulls her tightly into his body. He drops his bag on the floor and wraps both arms around her.

Brenda starts to laugh at his reaction completely confused as to why he was now standing in her apartment.

'Dylan, what are you doing here?' she asks him when he finally lets go.

'Bren, you didn't answer me when I asked about Beau. No phone calls, no emails, no nothing,' he says quickly.

'Dylan, I just got back from touring like fifteen minutes ago,' she says pointing to her bags by the front door.

Dylan turns his head slightly to see a pile of luggage by the door. She takes his hand and walks him over to the computer to show him the response she was in the middle of writing.

Dylan starts to laugh at himself and squeezes her hand.

'Why didn't you call me or something? My outgoing message says that I'm on tour,' she tells him.

Dylan sighs and smiles as he looks at her. 'Sorry,' he says and shrugs his shoulders.

Brenda laughs and says, 'I can't believe you came all the way from Hawaii because of an email.'

Dylan doesn't want to tell her that the email wasn't the only reason he came to see her. 'I guess it was a momentary lapse,' he says.

Brenda narrows her eyes at him, knowing that he's not telling her the truth. She walks over to the couch with him and sits down.

She folds her arms across her lap and waits for him to tell her the real story.

'Look, Iris and I were talking about the entire Marchette thing from the beginning and we got to the part where you and I left to let her work out one of the crazy notes. Remember when we ran into Beau in Hyde Park?' he asks her.

Brenda nods her head, thinking back to that moment in time. She thinks about Beau for a few seconds and then flashes of them on the park bench become very clear in her mind.

'He made me really uncomfortable and I had completely forgotten about him until that moment when I was talking to Iris. I just wasn't okay with you being here by yourself and not knowing where that crazy guy is,' he tells her.

'Dylan,' Brenda says putting her hand on his arm, 'I've been taking care of myself for a long time without any help from anyone. I think I can handle Beau,' she says.

'I know you can, Bren, but I guess I just wanted to be sure,' he says.

She smiles at him and says, 'Thank you for your concern. You must have been really freaked out to fly all the way here from Hawaii, Dylan. That's a long flight to have this conversation,' she says.

'Well, while I'm here, maybe we should revisit this whole situation,' he says with hope.

'Dylan, we talked about this already and decided it was best if we just went back to the way things were before this whole Marchette thing happened,' Brenda says with sadness in her voice.

'Yeah, I know, but maybe we should go back a little further,' he says raising his eyebrows at her.

'How much further?' she asks staring into his eyes.

They look at each other without moving a muscle as they had done so many times before. As they start to inch toward each other ever so slightly, they are interrupted by the phone ringing loudly.

Brenda smiles to herself, shakes her head a little, and gets up quickly to answer it.

'Hello?' she says into the receiver.

Dylan feels a pang in his chest as she stands in front of him with the phone to her ear.

'Oh, hi, of course,' Brenda says looking over at Dylan, 'he got here just fine, Iris.'

Dylan lets out a breath and sits back on the couch.

'Brenda, I tried to talk him out of it, but there was nothing I could say to change his mind,' Iris says.

'Yeah, well, Iris, we both know that all too well,' she says. 'I actually just got back this afternoon from a two week tour.'

'Well, doesn't he have impeccable timing?' Iris laughs. 'Listen, I just wanted to say that I love both of you and just keep an open mind, okay?'

'What are you talking about?' Brenda asks her.

'I know that you two have been through a lot in a very short amount of time, but I do believe that some good will come out of this, even if it was a rash decision on his part,' Iris says.

Brenda looks over at Dylan, who is staring at the floor waiting for Brenda to get off of the phone.

'I do too, Iris, thanks,' she says and hangs up.

'So,' she says to him, sitting back down on the couch, 'you just left your poor mother all alone, huh?'

Dylan finally looks up and smiles at her. 'She can take care of herself too, Bren,' he says.

They smile at each other and lock eyes again for a few seconds until the phone rings for a second time.

'Wow, I am one popular person today,' she says, reaching for the phone.

'Hello?' she says as Dylan watches her face turn whiter than it already was, 'oh, hi Beau.'

Dylan hearts starts to race when he hears her say his name. He immediately grabs her hand and holds onto it tightly as she talks to him.

'You know, I just got back from a tour, I'm kind of tired and not really in the mood to go out. Maybe another night, okay?' she says. 'Okay, talk to you soon.'

'Are you kidding me? I can't believe that just happened,' he says and gets up off of the couch as Brenda puts the phone down slowly.

'He probably heard from Paige or someone that I was coming back today,' she says to him.

Dylan starts pacing around her living room with his hand to his forehead.

'Bren, there is something wrong with that guy, I just know it. He's involved in this somehow and it pisses me off that I haven't been able to figure it out yet.'

'Dylan, just calm down,' she says.

'Calm down? No way,' he says and kneels down on the floor in front of where she is sitting on the couch. He takes both of her hands in his and gives her a pleading look.

'Please, Bren, please, come back with me. I can't bear to think about you being here alone with that guy out there somewhere.'

Brenda searches his eyes and is taken aback by the fear she sees written all over his face.

'Listen, this is my home, Dylan,' she says freeing herself from him and walking to the other side of the room.

'I don't need you to watch over me,' she says firmly.

Dylan drops his head and sighs. He knows that stubborn attitude and knows that he's not going to get anywhere in this conversation, so he decides to let it go for now.

'Look, I'm going to eat something and go to bed. I'm exhausted from the tour and just need some sleep. You know where everything is,' she says grabbing an apple from the refrigerator.

She walks over to the front door and drags her bags into her bedroom.

Brenda sits on her bed after changing her clothes and looks toward the door. She smiles to herself at the incredible feeling she had seeing Dylan standing on the other side of her door.

He was so worried about her and it left her wondering if that was the only reason he came to London.

She turns the light out and falls into a deep sleep, her body sinking into the mattress after a long grueling tour away from home.

Dylan walks around her apartment for a little while trying to figure out what to do next. He hadn't thought this far ahead in his plan to come and rescue her and he wasn't sure what he next move would be. He decides that he's too tired to think about it and grabs his bag.

He walks down the hallway, stares at Brenda's closed door for a few seconds, and then goes into the spare room to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 3**

_Washington, D.C._

Brandon divides his time between work and hanging out with Amy. They had finally spent the night together and he smiles to himself thinking of how wonderful it was to be in an easy relationship.

He had started cooking dinner and was in the middle of it when he hears a knock at his door.

'Hi Brandon,' Amy says, kissing him. 'Something smells fantastic in here.'

She walks into his apartment and puts her bag down. She brings a grocery bag into the kitchen and takes out a pie she had bought from the store.

'Dessert?' she says showing it to him.

'Oh, that looks great,' Brandon says.

'So, what are we doing tonight?' she asks him, putting her arms around his waist as he stands at the stovetop.

'Ah, well, we are going to enjoy some fine dining with a nice bottle of wine, eat some pie, and,' he says.

'Talk about our past,' she finishes for him.

'Huh?' he says.

'We've been spending a lot of time together, Brandon, but we don't know that much about each other. I figured that enough time has gone by that we should feel comfortable talking about our families, our friends, and our lives,' she suggests.

'Well, okay, but there's not a whole lot to tell,' he says.

'Somehow I doubt that,' she says with a smile.

She helps him set the table and lights some candles. He opens the wine and pours her a glass.

'Wow, this is a nice bottle of wine,' she says.

Brandon smiles at her as he puts the food on the table.

'Shall we?'

_London_

Brenda wakes up slowly and looks around the room for a few seconds. She tries to remember if she dreamed the fact that Dylan showed up or if he was actually here. She hears the bathroom door open and footsteps going into the kitchen and sighs to herself.

'I guess I wasn't dreaming,' she says out loud.

She rolls out of bed and goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She walks out into the kitchen and sees Dylan making a pot of coffee.

'Good morning,' he says with a smile.

'So, you are real,' she says. 'I thought I was dreaming there for a minute.'

'Ooh, maybe you are,' he says stepping toward her. He puts his arm around her body and pulls her close. He drops his head down kisses her lightly on the lips.

'Mmmm, definitely not dreaming,' she says with a smile. She takes a few steps back and looks at him with sleepy eyes.

'Bren,' he says, 'you look like you're still asleep.'

'Yeah, touring brings out the best in me,' she says with a yawn.

'What's that like anyway?' he asks her as they wait for the coffee to brew.

'It's grueling actually. The company spends a day or two putting up the set, focusing the lights and getting all of the costumes and props in place. In between doing that, we work out the blocking and rehearse the important scenes, since all the stages are set up differently,' she tells him.

Dylan nods and lets her continue.

'We play for a half week or a full week, depending on where we are, with a show every night and two shows on the weekend days. After that we tear it all down, get back on the bus in the middle of the night, drive to the next city to do it all over again,' she says.

'That does sound exhausting. Are they all like that?'

'No, not all of them. This was a short run, only two weeks and four cities,' she tells him.

'I don't know how you do that,' he says, shaking his head and pouring her a cup of coffee.

He hands her the cup and watches her bring it up to her nose and smell it.

'Ah, I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee,' she smiles.

'So, Bren, what's next?' he asks her as they move from the kitchen to the table.

'I'm not sure. I have to call my agent and see if he has anything lined up for me,' she says opening her computer and checking her mail.

After reading a message from Brandon, she starts to laugh and closes her computer.

'What's so funny?' he asks her.

'I just got an email from Brandon. He's in D.C. at an internship position at one of the local papers,' she tells him.

'Wow, good for him,' Dylan says.

'Yeah, well, he writes and tells me that he's all settled in to his apartment and that his new job is great and challenging, and oh, yeah, he met someone and she's great,' Brenda says.

Dylan smiles and nods his head. 'Of course.'

Dylan picks up the newspaper that was dropped outside of Brenda's door that morning and starts to read it as Brenda calls her agent.

As she is talking, she writes Brandon's address on the envelope containing the letter she wrote him while she was on tour in it and leaves it on the counter to put it in the mailbox.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon and Amy sit on his couch drinking wine and talking about themselves.

'So, you have a twin? That's amazing. What's it like being a twin? Do you have that connection to each other that everyone always talks about?' Amy asks him after he tells her about Brenda.

'Um, kind of, it's not like I feel it when she has an emotion or something, but there have been times when we've had entire conversations with each other without saying a word,' he says.

'That's incredible,' Amy says. 'I never experienced that, being an only child. So, tell me more about Minnesota. I've never been there. Is it as cold as they say it is?'

'Absolutely it is. I kind of enjoyed it though, California doesn't really have seasons. It's mostly warm and sunny, and then a little rainy, and then back to sunny,' he says.

'Yeah, but living in Los Angeles must have been quite a shock from Minnesota,' she asks him. 'What was that like?

'Are you interviewing me or something?' he asks her with a smile.

'Kind of, I want to know about you. I'm intrigued,' she says.

'It wasn't that shocking, it just took a while to get used to. I kind of felt like I fit in right away, although Brenda had some trouble there in the beginning. You know how girls can be,' Brandon says.

'Ah, yes, I do. Nasty little bitches,' Amy says and then immediately puts her hand over her mouth.

'Do I sense some unresolved issues?' Brandon asks her.

'Maybe a few,' she says.

'So, tell me, what was it like growing up in Connecticut?' he asks her.

'Oh, you know, pretty normal. My mom was a homemaker like your mom and my dad worked in New York City on Wall Street,' she tells him.

'Did you live that close to the city?'

'Fairly close, he took the train in to work most of the time,' she says. 'It wasn't too long that they started to drift apart with him not being around a whole lot.'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Brandon says.

'It's okay, Brandon,' she says smiling.

'How old were you when they split up?' he asks.

'Um, nine or ten, I think,' she says. 'Let's not dwell on that. I'm over it and I'd like to talk more about your family.'

'What about my family? My parents are still together after twenty years or so, I go to school at California University, and my sister lives in London and works as an actress.'

'Sounds like the perfect life, Brandon,' she says with a smile showing him her empty wine glass.

Brandon huffs a little and fills her glass. 'Yeah, well, we're only just talking about my family, wait until you meet them, it's an entirely different story,' he says.

Amy smiles wide and takes a sip from her glass. 'So, you want me to meet the family already?'

Brandon laughs as she puts her glass down and moves to sit as close to him as she can get.

She lifts her face and puts her hand on Brandon's cheek. He smiles down at her and she moves in to kiss him.

_London_

Brenda gets off of the phone with her agent and goes back to the table to join Dylan.

'So, does he have anything for you?' he asks her.

'Not yet, but he thinks there might be a few possibilities coming up in the next few weeks,' she says.

'What about you, Dylan? What are your plans?' she asks him softly.

'I don't know, Bren. I was kind of hoping you'd just agree to go home with me and then my problems would be solved,' he says with a smile, trying not to start a fight.

Brenda smiles at him and shakes her head.

'Well, that plan is busted, huh?' she says.

'Yeah, now I need a new one,' he says.

'Well, you can stay here for awhile if you want to, but I'm not going back,' she says.

'I don't want to get in your way, Bren. I just want to make sure that there are no lingering effects of this thing we went through out there,' he says.

'I know you're concerned, Dylan, but Marchette disappeared, just like he promised he would. I don't think he'd be willing to tempt fate again after what we saw in his study that night,' she says.

'I want to believe that, Bren, I really do, but something's just not right,' he says.

'Are you still having nightmares?' she asks him sincerely.

Dylan nods his head and says, 'No, those have pretty much stopped. It's a good thing too, because I think it was driving me slowly crazy,' he says.

'Yeah, I can't imagine what that must feel like,' Brenda says.

'Bren, if it's okay with you I think I'll stick around for a few more days,' he says.

Brenda smiles at him and nods her head.

*****

Dylan spends the next week with Brenda at her apartment. He listens to her talk to her agent and some other people she knows in the theatre scene trying to find work.

He begins to get restless when he realizes that every time he tries to talk to her about their situation, she ends up changing the subject to something else. He knows deep down that one way or another they would find a way to be with each other again, but that seemed so far away that he was about to give up.

'Hey, Dylan?' he hears Brenda say as she comes out of her bedroom and walks into the living room.

'Yeah?'

'I just talked to Paige and I haven't seen them since I got back from the tour, I was thinking of throwing a little dinner party and have them over. Are you up for that?' she asks him.

He narrows his eyes a little bit at her. 'All of your friends?' he asks her.

'No, not all of them, Dylan. Just Paige, Wyatt, Brent, who you've already met, and then some friends from the show I was working on before I had to leave,' she says.

'What about you know who?' he asks her.

'I haven't actually spoken to him since he called that day and when I talked to Paige, she didn't mention him at all,' she says.

'Don't you think that's weird, Bren?'

'No, Dylan, I don't. She's been very busy too over the last few weeks. I'm sure she hasn't seen him either,' she says.

'Uh huh,' Dylan says.

'Come on, it'll be fun and it'll give us something to do other than sit here and stare at the walls,' she says.

Dylan smiles at her and nods his head. 'Okay, what do you need me to do?' he asks her.

Brenda smiles back and looks around the house.

_The Peach Pit_

Donna walks into the Peach Pit to pick up some food for her and Kelly.

'Hey Donna,' Steve says.

'Hey, Steve, what's going on?'

'Nothing much, just finishing up. What are you doing?'

'Picking up some food, it's like impossible to get Kelly to leave the house. She goes to class and then comes right home again,' Donna says.

'That doesn't sound like Kelly to me. What's going on?'

'I don't know, Steve. I think she's convinced herself that Brandon is her soul mate and that while he's in Washington, she's just going to sulk.'

'Ooh, that's not good. Haven't you talked to Brandon since he left?' he asks her.

Donna shakes her head.

'I think he's seeing someone, Donna. He told me that he's been hanging out with someone that he met at work a lot,' Steve tells her.

'Of course he is,' Donna says and sighs.

'It's not his fault, Donna, he doesn't know that Kelly is stuck on him,' Steve says.

'Whatever we do, we cannot tell her,' Donna says firmly.

'My lips are sealed,' Steve says putting his hand over his mouth.

Donna grabs her food and walks out of the diner.

_Washington, D.C._

Brandon sits at his desk waiting for George to come in. He looks over some research he did a few days ago trying to summarize it so that he can tell George what he found.

'Hey, Brandon,' George says, coming around the corner.

Brandon looks up as George sits down in his cubicle.

'I need you to take my appointment at the National Archives today. I have to go up to the Hill to meet with a source and I won't be able to keep my appointment,' he says.

'Okay, sure, no problem. What am I looking for?'

George hands him a piece of paper. 'I've requested to look at these court case files,' he says as Brandon looks at the paper that just has a bunch of numbers on it.

'Um,' Brandon says.

'I don't want to tell you too much, since I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at yet. Look through the case files, make copies of anything and everything that looks important to the defendant in the case. You'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about once you get there,' George says, looking around the office.

'Okay,' Brandon says. 'I'm on it. What time is the appointment?'

'Twenty minutes, so you better get moving,' he says with a smile.

'Thanks, George,' he says, grabbing his things and walking quickly out of the office.

_London_

'Okay, Bren, the hors d'oeuvres are in the oven,' Dylan says closing the door to the oven.

'Great, thank you. How do I look?' Brenda asks him.

Dylan looks up from the oven and opens his eyes as wide as they will go.

'Wow, Bren,' he says, whistling at her. 'You look incredible.'

Brenda plasters a huge smile on her face. 'Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself,' she says.

Dylan looks down at his shirt and tie. 'Well, you know, I bought it special, just for you,' he says with a smile.

She laughs at him. 'Did it come with the dish towel on the shoulder or is that your own personal flair?'

'Funny,' he says as the door bell rings.

'Oh, Dylan, they're here, will you light the candles, please?' she asks and runs to the door.

Dylan watches her dress move with her as she runs to the door. He lets out a deep breath and tries to calm the knots in his stomach.

He moves to the tables and starts to light the candles that Brenda had placed around the house.

'Hi,' Brenda says and hugs her friends as they come pouring through the door.

'Oh, Dylan, I didn't know you were here,' Paige says to him and gives him a hug.

'Yeah, it's good to see you again,' he says.

She lets go of him and winks in his direction as he shakes hands with Wyatt and Brent.

'Dylan, this is Dave, Jaime, Rita, and Jessica. They all worked on the show you never got to see,' Brenda says with a smile.

'It's nice to meet all of you,' Dylan says politely.

'Oh, Brenda, we missed you. It was never the same without you. Charlotte could not even come close to what you brought to the show,' Jessica says.

'Thank you, Jess, I was really not too happy about having to leave that show. I think it definitely would have caught the attention of some really important people,' she says.

Wyatt, Brent, and Dylan stand in the kitchen talking to each other as Brenda works her way around the room.

Dylan puts out the hors d'oeuvres on the table and watches as the group congregates around the food.

Brenda steps into the kitchen and stands next to him.

'Well, they're a big hit, Dylan, good job,' she says.

Dylan smiles down at her and puts his arm around her waist.

Brenda smiles back at him and moves to the table to join her guests. Dylan watches her interact with her friends and sees her laughing and having a good time.

After a few hours and a lot of food, the guests start to leave. When the last one is out the door, Dylan and Brenda fall onto the couch and sigh together.

'Well, I think we can call that a successful dinner party,' he says holding out his hand.

She takes his hand and nods her head. 'I would have to agree with you on that account,' she says.

She sits up and takes her shoes off. Her hair falls to the side exposing half of her back and Dylan sighs again.

'Bren, I think it's time for me to leave,' he says with sadness in his voice. As he watched her throughout the course of the party, he couldn't help but think that she really didn't need him around. If she wasn't going to entertain the notion of the two of them working something out, maybe it wasn't meant to be.

'What are you talking about, Dylan?' she asks him.

'I came here to make sure that you were alright and from the looks of things, you are,' he says.

Brenda looks at him with a little sadness and confusion in her eyes.

'I think it's time I started living again, Bren. I've been running for a long time, and now that things have kind of settled down, I need to find something to keep me busy,' he says.

Brenda nods her head and takes his hand.

'I don't want to go another long period of time without seeing you, Bren. I don't think I could handle that. Promise me that you'll come back every now and again,' he says.

'Dylan, why does it sound like you're giving up or something? I know that it's been difficult for you since Toni died and if you need more time to deal with that, then you should take it. Don't jump right into something because you're bored or you think that you should,' she tells him.

'I'm not, Bren, it's time. I can't wander forever,' he says.

Brenda knows that he was hoping that she would just uproot herself to be with him or at least be near him for a while. She tries to fight the urge to give in, knowing that it wouldn't help either of them figure anything out.

'Well, if that's what you really want to do,' she says.

'It is,' he says softly.

She takes her hand and lifts his chin so that he's looking at her.

'Then I promise to come back to wherever you happen to be every now and again,' she whispers.

Dylan gives her a weak smile and watches her move in to kiss him. He slowly closes his eyes and enjoys to soft touch of her lips.

Brenda breaks the kiss first and wraps her arms around his neck. He hugs her to him, keeping his eyes closed the entire time.

After a minute or so, Brenda pulls back and smiles at him.

'Now, let's clean this place up so we can get some sleep,' she says.

She gets up and starts bring dishes into the kitchen. Dylan walks around the house blowing out the candles and then joins her in the kitchen to dry the dishes she has already washed.

They go to bed in separate rooms and Dylan lies awake staring at the ceiling.

'_She just needs some time to adjust. Maybe she thinks I'm not ready after everything that's happened. Maybe she's just scared. I'll give her a few months to think about what she wants and then bring it up again. Maybe she'll change her mind.'_

Dylan drifts off to sleep thinking about how to get her back.


	4. Chapter 4

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 4**

Brandon runs back to the office after being at the National Archives for a few hours. He walks quickly into George's cube to see him staring at the computer screen.

'George,' he says firmly.

'Ah, Brandon, I'm glad you're back. Come with me,' he says and leads Brandon to an empty office.

He closes the door and looks at him. 'What did you find?'

'Who is Jill Fisher?' he asks George.

'I'll tell you in a second, what did the case files say?'

'Well, she seems to defend a lot of politicians, families of politicians, a lot of civil servants in this area,' Brandon tells him.

'Yeah, was one of those cases for someone named Ron Jones?'

'Um,' Brandon says, flipping through his notes, 'yeah, Ron Jones, seventeen year old busted for possession with intent to distribute. She got him off with community service and no jail time, even though it was his fourth drug offense,' Brandon tells him.

'I knew it!' George says, putting his hand up to his chin.

'Listen, Ron Jones is the son of one of the appointed deputy mayors of this city,' George tells him.

'Yeah, okay, what does that have to do with Jill Fisher?'

'There's a money trail that stops dead somewhere in the mayor's budget and I think it's going to this woman for getting people off,' George says.

'I was hoping that the dates of the court cases would match up with some of the records I found. Can you write up what you found with the dates of everything by the end of the week?' he asks Brandon.

'Uh, sure, no problem,' Brandon says with a little confusion. 'George, are we going after the mayor or something?'

'Not yet,' George says, winks at him, and leaves the office.

_London_

Dylan wakes up to the sound of a loud crash and several bangs. He jumps out of bed and opens the door. He sees that Brenda's door is open slightly and hears some rustling going on behind it.

He runs into her room to check on her and flips the light switch on. He gasps out loud when he sees Brenda's body bending over, holding a baseball bat, threatening a prone body on the floor.

He moves a little closer and sees a terrified Beau on the floor, too scared to move.

'What the hell were you trying to do?' Brenda yells at him, not even noticing Dylan behind her.

Beau is too afraid to answer her and cowers a little further into the floor.

'There is something really wrong with you. Why did you break into my house? And what made you think you were going to get away with it? I should beat the ever living shit out of you right now with this bat!' she yells.

'Brenda, I'm sorry, I just,' Beau stammers.

'Spit it out, now!' she yells louder.

'I can't stop thinking about you. I'm obsessed. I needed to see you so bad that I couldn't help myself. I stood outside watching everyone coming and going out of here tonight and,' he starts to say.

'You have got to be kidding me,' she says with such ire that he shivers on the floor a little bit.

Dylan takes a few steps and grabs Brenda's phone. He dials the police while she keeps him pinned to the ground.

'So, you're back, huh?' Beau says to Dylan when he gets off of the phone.

'One more word out of you and I will break your leg, do you hear me?' Brenda says.

Ten minutes later, Brenda and Dylan hear the sirens and a knock on the door. Dylan moves quickly to let them in and leads them to the bedroom. The police surround Beau and Brenda takes a step back and puts the bat down.

She turns around to see Dylan behind her and leans into his body as the police put Beau in handcuffs.

Dylan wraps his arms around her waist and she grabs his hand and holds it tight.

They lead Beau out of her apartment and start to question Brenda as to what happened.

'Well, I was sleeping and I heard my bedroom door open. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I sat up to turn the light on and he put his hand over my mouth. I bit his hand, pushed him against the door and picked up the bat that I keep under the bed. I swung it at him and he bumped into my dresser and then fell on the floor,' she says.

'Do you know this man, miss? There was no sign of a forced entry.'

'Yes, he was a friend of mine until,' she says and takes a pause.

'Until?' the police man asks.

Brenda sighs and tells him the story of meeting Beau in the park and that the FBI thought someone was following her. She had to go through the explanation of how the FBI got involved in the first place and she recounted the last time she saw actually him.

'He was at the theatre?' Dylan asks her.

'Yeah, he said that he couldn't come to the show, but he showed up after it was over. I didn't really pay that much attention to it, because at that time the FBI agent had already found us and Iris was really ill in the bathroom,' Brenda says.

'He called me a few days ago, wanted to get together, but I had just come back from a theatre tour, so I told him that we could get together another time. That's the last time I heard from him,' she tells the police.

'Did he have a key to your apartment?' the policeman asks her.

'I didn't give him one,' she says.

'Thank you, ma'am, we'll let you know if we need more information. Have a good night,' he says.

Brenda sits on her bed and puts her head in her hands. Dylan moves to sit next to her and puts his arm around her shoulder.

'I cannot believe that just happened,' she says softly.

'I know,' he says, rubbing her arm with his hand.

'I guess you were right about him,' she says looking up to meet his eyes.

'I didn't want to be right about him, Bren. I just want you to be safe,' he says. He picks up the bat from where she left it leaning against the bed.

'Looks like you didn't need any help taking care of yourself, huh?' he says with a smile.

Brenda smiles back and then begins to laugh.

_Washington, D.C._

Brandon sits at his desk in his apartment writing up his notes and evaluations from the files he looked through the day before.

His phone rings and he quickly tries to finish his thought before answering it.

'Brandon, what are you doing?' Amy asks him.

'Writing some things up for George,' he tells her.

'At home? Why are you working at home?' she says.

'I just can't leave this unfinished. It bothers me that I couldn't finish it there,' Brandon tells her, as he starts to read over in his head what he's written so far.

'I wanted to hang out tonight, are you going to be done soon?' she asks him with a little whine in her voice.

'I don't know how long it's going to take. We can get together tomorrow, okay?' he asks her, completely preoccupied with his paper.

'Yeah, okay, I miss you,' she says.

'I miss you too. We'll plan something nice, okay?' he says.

'Okay, don't work too hard,' she says and hangs up the phone.

Brandon puts the phone down and starts typing away again. After about an hour, he gets up from his desk to stretch his legs. He starts to sift through some papers on the kitchen table and recognizes Brenda's handwriting on one of the envelopes.

He smiles down at the letter and opens it.

'_Dear Brandon, I was sitting in a pub here in Scotland after a show trying to wind down with the rest of the cast and I started thinking about you. I hope you got to D.C. in one piece and that you are enjoying your new job. You'll have to tell me all about it when I get back to civilization where there are computers and phones with working batteries. I was really worried about you and one of the guys in my cast asked what I was so worried about. I'm not really worried that you'll get yourself in trouble or anything. I guess I really just miss you a lot and I hope that one day we can be as close as we were when we were kids. Love, Brenda'_

Brandon smiles from ear to ear after reading Brenda's words. He goes to his computer and opens a new email. He tells her that he received her letter and that he would love nothing more than to be as close as they were back then.

'We'll get there, Bren, I promise, we'll get there,' he writes and hits send.

_London_

Brenda and Dylan sit on the couch together, drinking some tea, trying to calm themselves from what had just happened so that they could get back to sleep.

'I wonder what he was planning to do once he got in here,' Brenda says.

'I really don't want to think about that, Bren,' Dylan says, grabbing her hand and softly squeezing it.

'Maybe you were right, Dylan, maybe it's not safe for me here,' Brenda says with a sigh.

'I didn't mean it like that, Bren, I just hate the thought of you being here by yourself. If something were to happen to you,' Dylan's voice trails off and he feels her tighten the grip on his hand.

'_Maybe now she'll come home with me so that we can start out new life together.'_

'Dylan, don't say that,' she says. 'We'll figure it out in the morning, okay?'

Dylan nods and watches her get up off of the couch.

Brenda says goodnight to him and goes back to her room. She lies in her bed and stares at the ceiling trying to figure out what her next move would be. Dylan was right about one thing; she couldn't stay in London anymore. Too many people knew she was here and if there was really someone still after her, she was a sitting duck in this apartment.

She makes her decision and drifts off peacefully to sleep.

Dylan lies down on the couch and pulls a blanket over himself. He wanted to be closer to the door just in case something else happened tonight. He tosses and turns trying to fall back to sleep, but the turmoil inside his body keeps him awake.

He was certain that he wanted Brenda in his life, but the uneasiness in his stomach was something he just couldn't ignore.

_Washington, D.C._

Brandon finishes getting dressed and goes to answer the door after hearing a knock.

'Hey,' Amy says with a smile and kisses him.

'Hey, are you ready to have some fun tonight?' he asks her.

'Absolutely,' she says.

'Look, I'm sorry about last night. I just had to finish something for George,' he says.

'Brandon,' she says putting her arms around him, 'don't worry about it. We don't have to spend every night together. I know you want to impress him and do well at this job. You take whatever time you need, I'll still be here,' she says.

'You are an incredible woman,' he says and starts to kiss her.

They get caught up in each other for a few minutes until Brandon breaks their embrace.

'Whoa, wait a minute,' he says, 'save that for later. We're going to be late,' he says with a smile.

'Ooh, I can't wait. I'm so excited,' she says, as they leave his apartment.

Brandon takes Amy to the Kennedy Center for a Chamber Orchestra concert.

'Oh my God, this is fantastic,' she says, beaming when he shows her the tickets he purchased.

'I thought you'd enjoy it. This is supposed to be one of the best concerts of the year,' he tells her.

'That's what I heard,' she says with a smile. She leans up and kisses him.

_London_

Dylan wakes up the next morning and feels a kink in his back from sleeping on the couch.

'Oh,' he says out loud as he tries to sit up.

Brenda looks over at him from the table as he starts to move and sees him wince.

'Are you okay?' she asks him.

He turns his head slowly and nods. 'Yeah, just slept funny.'

'Well, that's what you get for choosing the couch over a nice bed,' she says.

She continues to type something on the computer and picks up the phone when it rings.

'Yes, hi, did you get my message?' she asks.

Brenda smiles into the phone and stands up as she listens to the person talk on the other end.

'Oh, that's great, that's exactly what I was looking for,' she says, picking up her coffee cup and walking into the kitchen to pour herself another cup.

'Really?' Brenda says with a little shock in her voice. 'Well, I've never heard of that before.'

Dylan watches her walk back to the table and sit down with her coffee. He tries to figure out who she could be talking to and what she's talking about. He gets up and goes to the pot to get a cup of coffee for himself.

'Yeah, let me think about that one, but keep looking, okay?' she says and hangs up the phone.

Dylan joins her at the table and sips his coffee.

'What was that all about?' he asks her.

'My agent is searching for jobs for me,' she says. 'He found a few around here and another one in Paris.'

'Paris?'

'Yeah, it's a long running show, actually something I've never heard of before, but it runs for six months and the pay is incredible,' she says.

Dylan was hoping that she was going to say that her agent found her a job in California. He thinks for a few seconds and then looks up at her suddenly.

'Bren, do you think Paris is far enough away from here and whatever might still be going on?' he asks her.

Brenda meets his eyes and sees that he isn't convinced that it is.

'I don't know, Dylan, it's a job and I need to work,' she says. 'I'm not about to jump on the first thing that comes my way, but I'd feel a lot better being there than here.'

He sips his coffee and casts a sideways glance her way as she continues to search on her computer for another job.

'Have you scheduled your flight?' Brenda asks him, wondering if Dylan was still planning on leaving.

'No, not yet. I was going to do that today,' he tells her.

'Um, Dylan,' she says softly.

'Yeah, Bren?' he answers.

'Would you stay here with me until the police tell me what's going on with Beau? They said that they should have more information in a few days and I'd feel more comfortable if you were still here,' she tells him.

Dylan smiles at her and feels for the first time since he showed up that she maybe did need him a little bit.

'Of course I will,' he says and watches her smile brightly at him.

_Washington, D.C._

Brandon sleeps soundly after returning from the Kennedy Center and making love to Amy. She lies next to him watching him breathe and smiles to herself. She lets out a sigh and closes her eyes when she hears her phone buzzing on the nightstand.

She recognizes the number and slowly moves out of the bed trying not to wake Brandon. She leaves the bedroom and walks out in to the living room to answer the phone.

'What is it?' she says insistently.

'There's been a slight change in plans, Nina,' a voice says.

'What happened now?'

'Beau got himself arrested,' the voice tells her.

'Are you kidding me? Can't that boy do anything right? Damn it! What happened?' she asks.

'I don't really know, but he got in, he must have hesitated or something because she got the upper hand, threatened him with a bat, and then had someone call the police,' the voice says.

'Someone else called the police? Who the hell was there?'

'You're never going to believe it, but it was Dylan. I don't know what's going on, but she was supposed to be alone.'

'Dylan was at her apartment? Did we miss something? How the hell did that man leave Hawaii and show up in London and we didn't know about it?'

'Someone wasn't doing their job, that's how. What are we going to do now?'

'I'll figure something out,' she says.

'What about your end?'

'My end is going swimmingly well. He's like butter in my hands,' she says glancing back toward the bedroom where Brandon was sleeping.

'Look, let me think about how we can modify this plan to still reach the goal, okay? I'll call you back later,' she says and hangs up her phone.

She paces around Brandon's living room trying to figure out what to do next. She hears him turn over in the bedroom and quickly moves back to get into bed.

_The Beach Apartment_

'Donna, I have a great idea,' Kelly says with a smile on her face as she comes through the apartment door.

'Wow, Kelly, is that actually a happy face and a smile?' Donna says rubbing her eyes dramatically and staring at Kelly's face.

'Yes, I've figured it out,' she says beaming.

'Figured what out?'

'The whole Brandon thing,' Kelly says, putting her bag down on the floor.

Donna rolls her eyes and sighs.

'We're going to visit him during Spring Break,' she says.

'We?'

'Yes, we, it would be strange if I went by myself,' she says. 'You, me, and Steve are going to take a road trip and end up in D.C. to spend time with Brandon.'

'Kelly, come on, don't you think you should just call him and find out how he's doing and even if he wants to see us before we just drop ourselves on his doorstep?' Donna says.

'No way, if I do that then he can change his mind or something. This is the perfect plan. We'll surprise him and then I can see his face when I tell him how I've been feeling,' she says.

Donna thinks back to what Steve told her in the Peach Pit and winces a little bit.

'I don't know if that's such a good plan, Kel,' she says.

'Come on, Donna, do this for me, would you? I don't want to do this over the phone. This is a perfect opportunity and I'm going to take it. I'm sure if you don't want to go that Steve would go with me,' she says, storming off into her bedroom.

Donna sighs again as she stares at Kelly's closed bedroom door and sighs.


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry for the wait! Enjoy!_

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 5**

Donna gets up slowly after staring at Kelly's door and listening to her stomp around the room. She walks to the phone and dials.

'Hello?'

'Brenda, thank God you're home,' Donna says.

'Hey, Donna, what's going on?' Brenda says.

'Kelly has completely lost her mind and I don't know what to do,' Donna cries.

'What happened?'

'Since Brandon left, Kelly has been moping around here thinking that she may have lost a chance to be with him or something,' Donna tells her.

'Lost her chance to be with him? What does that mean?'

'I don't know, Bren. I think she's convinced herself that Brandon is her soul mate,' Donna says.

'Really? Did something happen between them before he left?'

'Not that I know of, but she's obsessed at this point. She's planning a trip to D.C. during Spring Break that she's forcing me and probably Steve to go on with her. What do you think, Bren? Do you think they have a chance?'

Brenda thinks about it for a few seconds. 'Well, from what Brandon tells me, he's dating some girl he met at work and he's really happy,' Brenda tells her.

'Yeah, that's what Steve told me. I tried to talk her out of it, but I didn't just want to blurt out that he's with someone,' Donna says.

'I definitely wouldn't do that. I say just go, Donna, I mean, what is it really going to hurt? It'll be fun to take a road trip and if Brandon is really serious about this girl, then Kelly being there won't matter,' Brenda says.

'Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe we can knock Kelly out or something so that we don't have to hear her talk about Brandon all the way across the country,' Donna says laughing out loud.

Brenda joins her and says, 'Well, it should be interesting either way, Donna.'

'So, how are things with you?' Donna asks.

'Oh, I'm alright. I just finished a tour and am on the hunt for another job,' Brenda tells her.

'Well, if you don't find a job before Spring Break, you could meet up with us in D.C.,' Donna suggests.

Brenda smiles into the phone. 'Yeah, I'll think about it,' she says.

'Well, thanks for the chat, but I have to go make sure Kelly isn't playing with voodoo dolls or something. Talk to you soon!' Donna says.

'Okay,' Brenda says with a laugh.

'What was that all about?' Dylan asks her.

'Donna called to tell me how worried she was about Kelly. For some reason, Kelly has got it into her head that Brandon is her soul mate and that they need to take a road trip to visit him during Spring Break,' Brenda tells him.

Dylan smirks and sits at the table with Brenda.

'Well, that's an interesting development. Leave it to Kelly to start some drama,' he says.

Brenda smiles again and turns her attention to her computer when an email from her agent pops up.

She opens it and starts to read. 'Oh my God,' she says out loud.

'What?'

'This better be for real,' she says, quickly dialing the phone.

'Please tell me you're not jerking my chain with this email,' she says when he picks up the phone.

Dylan watches Brenda's expression turn from nervousness to extreme excitement.

'Holy shit,' she says. 'I'm in, I'll leave right now if they want me to.'

'That is the best news I have heard in a long time. You are a genius, thank you!' Brenda says into the phone and hangs it up. She slams it on the table and starts to jump with excitement.

'Whoa, Bren, what is going on?'

'Dylan,' Brenda says, calming herself down, 'do you think New York is far enough away from London?'

She walks to where he is seated and jumps into his lap. She wraps her arms around his neck and holds on tight.

'New York?' Dylan says with confusion as he puts his arms around her waist.

'My agent got a call from a producer that was in Ireland and saw the tour. He wants me to play Dotty in 'Noises Off' on Broadway without so much as an audition!' she tells him.

Dylan squeezes her body into his own. She lets go and stands in front of him with a huge smile on her face.

He stands up and immediately picks her up and starts to spin her around the room. She laughs and holds on to him until he puts her down.

'That is some of the best news I've ever heard,' he says.

'I can't even believe this is happening. Broadway, Dylan! They want me to perform on Broadway!'

'I am so happy for you, Bren,' he says. 'When do you have to be there?'

'Next week,' she says breathlessly. 'They're going to put me up in a hotel until I can find an apartment or something. Oh my God, I have to get packing,' she says and starts to frantically run around the house.

He catches up with her and grabs her arm to stop her from moving.

'Bren, relax, you have some time and I'll help you, okay?' he says.

Brenda takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. 'Right, right,' she says.

Brenda walks back to the table and picks up the phone.

'Brandon! You are not going to believe what I am about to tell you!' she says with excitement into the phone.

Dylan smiles at her as she walks around the house talking to Brandon.

'Wow, Bren, that is incredible. You'll only be a few hours away from me. This is going to be great,' Brandon tells her.

She finally gets off of the phone and grabs a piece of paper to start making a list of all of the things she has to do before leaving.

_Brandon's Apartment_

'Well, Amy, it looks as if you'll get to meet Brenda sooner than we thought,' Brandon tells her.

'Really? What's going on?' she asks him.

'Brenda just landed a job on Broadway!' he says with excitement.

'Wow, Broadway, that's incredible,' Amy says. The wheels begin to turn in her head and she smiles to herself.

Brandon goes into the kitchen to get another bottle of wine for them and doesn't see the glint in Amy's eye.

They drink about half the bottle when Amy gets up and tells Brandon that she's going to go home to get some sleep.

'Are you sure you don't want to stay?' he asks her with his arms around her waist.

She smiles up at him and kisses him on the tip of the nose. 'I can't tonight, I actually have to get some sleep, Brandon. I seem to always wake up tired when I stay here.'

'Mmmmm, wonder why that is?' he says.

She smiles and kisses him. 'Goodnight, Brandon.'

He watches her walk out and smiles to himself thinking about Brenda.

Amy goes back to her apartment and immediately picks up the phone and starts to dial.

'Listen, I've figured it out. We don't have to worry that Beau is no longer in the picture,' she says.

'Why?'

'Well, it just so happens that Brenda is going to be in New York in a week or two to perform on Broadway,' she says.

'Oh, that's perfect,' the voice says.

'It's like taking candy from a baby. I'll call you back later with the details,' she says.

She gets off of the phone and smiles.

_The Beach Apartment_

'Okay, are you sure we have everything? I don't want to be halfway across the country and have to turn back because you forgot something,' Steve says to Kelly and Donna, staring at the pile of luggage on the floor in their living room.

'We have everything Steve. We're not leaving for another two days. We'll have time to think of what we may have forgotten,' Donna says.

'So, Kel, you're going to take your Psychology mid-term early so we can leave, right?' Steve asks her.

'Yes, Steve. I already talked to my professor and he's allowing me to take it in his office tomorrow afternoon,' she says. 'Relax, everything is going to be fine.'

'I'm relaxed,' he says looking at them, 'Okay, maybe I'm not that relaxed, I'm excited. I can't wait to get there.'

Kelly and Donna start to laugh at him and he eventually joins in.

_Brenda's Apartment_

Brenda had gotten some boxes from the bar down the street and starts to pack away some of her valuable items.

'Bren?' Dylan asks, sitting down next to her on the floor where she was wrapping up some knick-knacks.

'Yeah?'

'How long is the show in New York supposed to run?'

'I don't know, Dylan, it's an open-ended contract. It could run for a few months or a few years,' she tells him.

'Are you bringing everything with you?' he asks her.

'No, of course not, Dylan,' she says with a smile. 'Don't be silly. I'll put some stuff in storage that I don't want to just sit here.'

'What can I help you with?' he asks her.

'Um, well, you can start going through the kitchen if you want,' she suggests.

'You got it,' he says with a wink and gets up.

Dylan starts to open the drawers in her kitchen, choosing essential items that she would need to bring with her.

He opens one of the drawers and finds that it's full of papers and junk. He sighs and empties the contents onto the counter. He starts sifting through old playbills, birthday cards, and coupons that had expired.

He drops a playbill on the counter and a picture falls from his fingers. He slowly picks it up and stares at it for a full minute.

Brenda hears him stop moving and turns her head from wrapping a vase. She sees him staring down at something.

'Dylan?' she says.

He snaps his head up in the direction of her voice.

'What is it?' she asks, having no clue what he could have found to make him freeze like that.

He smiles weakly at her and moves slowly to where she is sitting. He picks up her hand and puts the picture in it.

She looks down and sees their smiling faces staring back at her. She immediately thinks of the moment she came down the stairs and saw Kelly wearing the same dress the night of the Spring Dance.

'Wow, look at how young we look,' Brenda says.

'One of the best nights of my life,' Dylan says softly, sitting down next to her.

Brenda looks at the picture again and then looks up to meet Dylan's eyes.

'After that night, I really thought that we would be together forever,' Brenda admits.

'Yeah, me too, and then you broke up with me,' he says.

'We were young, Dylan. I had no idea what was happening to me at that time,' she says.

'I know, Bren,' he says and takes the picture from her hand. He looks at it again and can't help but smile.

'Sometimes I wish we could go all the way back and do it all over again,' he says.

'Ugh, Dylan, why would you want to do that? I was so excited to finally be out of high school. I never want to relive that,' she says.

'Not the high school part, Brenda,' he says watching her start to laugh.

'It was so much simpler back then, Dylan. Everything was very black and white. We're not even the same people now that we were then,' she says.

'We may be slightly different now, Brenda, but the shadows of our younger selves are in there somewhere,' Dylan says.

'Yeah, maybe you're right,' she says. Brenda stares at the picture again and starts to remember how happy she was that night. She begins to remember the hotel room and how he picked her up and carried her to the bed. She remembers his soft touch and feeling every moment that went by slowly.

She turns her eyes to look at him and gets an overwhelming urge to grab Dylan by the back of the head and kiss him. She sees a familiar look in his eyes as he looks up from the picture to meet hers.

'Bren,' he whispers to her.

Brenda stops thinking about everything and with both of her hands pulls his face into hers. Their lips meet and a shockwave passes through her body as he puts his arms around her.

She pushes back and he slowly lies on the floor with her on top of him. They wrap arms and legs around each other as they kiss with passion that seemed to come out of nowhere.

They start to undress each other and try as hard as they can to keep their mouths touching. They make love slowly, enjoying each moment as it passes, just like the first time.

Brenda lies in Dylan's arms and closes her eyes. She smiles to herself and then starts to laugh out loud.

'What's so funny?' he asks her, sitting up.

'I think we actually became teenagers again for a little while,' she says.

'Why do you say that?' he asks.

'Dylan, look around,' Brenda says turning her head from side to side, 'we were so engaged in what we were doing that we didn't even notice that we just made love on a hardwood floor.'

Brenda starts to laugh uncontrollably and puts her hands over her face.

Dylan smiles and then starts to laugh with her. She gets up off of the floor and puts her hand out for him to take.

She helps him up and walks them to her bedroom. She lies down on the bed, bringing him with her.

Dylan lies halfway on top of her and puts his hand up to her cheek. He stares into her eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

Brenda smiles at him and leans forward to kiss him.

'Dylan?'

'Yeah?'

'I know this may sound weird, but spending the night with you that first time was one of the happiest memories I have of us,' she says softly.

Dylan watches her face as she talks and can't help but think of how much his body reacts to every move she makes.

'We had some good times together, but nothing tops that one,' she continues.

'Brenda, I have never in my life felt the way I did then with anyone else,' he tells her. 'I don't know what it was about you that brought all of that out, but you were the only one who could.'

Brenda nods her head and meets his eyes. 'Did you ever think your life would turn out the way that it has?'

Dylan thinks for a moment and leans down to kiss her. 'Parts of it are exactly how I thought they would turn out,' he says.

Brenda smiles again and wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him closer. They start to kiss again, this time as slow as they can possibly kiss.

Brenda and Dylan begin to move together slowly. Brenda feels almost numb from the overwhelming emotions of being with Dylan again. She tries as hard as she can to turn her brain off and just enjoy him for the moment.

_The Beach Apartment_

'Kelly, are you ready yet?' Donna yells, moving from the living room into Kelly's bedroom.

She sees Kelly sitting in the middle of her bed, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

'Kel? What's the matter?' Donna asks her.

Kelly looks up at Donna without moving her head.

'Oh my God, please tell me you haven't changed your mind,' Donna says sitting on Kelly's bed.

'No, no, I haven't. I'm just,' Kelly pauses, 'a little nervous.'

'Nervous about what? You were so intent on doing this,' Donna says.

'I know, I know, I still am, it just came over me all of a sudden.'

'Kelly, it will take us a days to get to D.C., okay? You'll have plenty of time to work this out before we get there. We really have to leave now, though, okay?'

Kelly nods her head at Donna and doesn't move when Donna gets up.

'Come on, Kel, we have to go,' Donna says, standing in front of her with her arms across her chest.

'Okay, okay,' Kelly says, finally moving to get off of the bed. She grabs her purse and follows Donna out into the living room.

'Finally,' Steve says, grabbing the last of the luggage and going out to the car.

With Steve driving, Donna gets in the front seat and lets Kelly take the back all to herself.

'Okay, let's get out of here,' Steve says and starts to drive down the road.

Kelly turns her head and watches the beach and the apartment get smaller and smaller and tries to calm the knot in her stomach.

She closes her eyes and starts to breathe in and out very slowly.

_Washington D.C._

'So, when does your sister get here?' Amy asks Brandon as they clear the table after dinner.

'Um, I'm not sure. I think she said she has to be here by next week,' he says with a smile on his face.

'Wow, someone's very excited about this,' she says.

'Brenda and I are in the process of rebuilding our relationship with each other. We got into a really big fight a while ago and just recently reconnected. I'm really looking forward to her being close so that we can touch base more often,' he tells her.

'I thought you guys were really close?' Amy asks.

'Well, we were, and then we weren't. It's a long story that I'd rather not get into right now,' he says, putting his arms around her waist and pulling her close.

'I have to say that since you've been here, I've never seen you smile this much,' she says.

Brandon smiles again and then starts to laugh. 'It's unavoidable,' he says.

She leans up to kiss him and puts her arms around his neck.

'I really can't wait for her get here,' he says, turning around to put some dishes in the sink.

'Neither can I,' Amy says with a devilish smile.

_London_

Brenda gets up and gets out of bed to make some coffee. She watched Dylan sleeping for a few minutes before getting out of bed. They slept in the same bed the night after they had made love like teenagers, but all they did was sleep. She tried not to think of what happened between them, but the uneasy feeling she had in her stomach was getting worse by the second.

She sits at the table with her coffee staring at the wall. The feeling in the pit of her stomach becomes more and more intense with every thought she has of his arms around her, him kissing her neck, and touching her body. She sighs and puts her cup down and can't help but wonder if she just made the biggest mistake of her life.


	6. Chapter 6

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 6**

Brenda snaps out of her thoughts about having sex with Dylan when the phone rings.

'Brenda, it's Tim,' she hears on the other end. Tim was her realtor who she called to help find someone to sublet her apartment to while she was gone.

'I found someone who's willing to sublet who can move in the week after you leave,' he tells her.

'Oh, Tim, that's great news. I was a little worried about making the payments while I was gone,' Brenda tells him.

'Well, not to worry, I took care of it for you. Her name is Marie and she just got a job in the front office for Harrods,' he tells her.

'Oh, that's great. I'm glad you didn't find some scary college student for me,' she says with a laugh.

'There was a few, but I thought you'd be more comfortable with someone a little older and more responsible,' Tim says with a laugh.

'You are amazing, thank you,' she says.

'No problem, have a safe trip and I'll call you if I need to,' he says.

'Sounds good,' Brenda says and hangs up.

She smiles to herself looking around her apartment. With her first big paycheck from the first show she was involved in she purchased this apartment. She loved the layout and the proximity to everything and couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it.

As she looks around, she hears Dylan open the bedroom door and wander out into the kitchen. She laughs at him when he pours his coffee with his eyes half closed.

'Are you laughing at me?' he asks her softly, walking to the table to sit down.

'Your eyes aren't even open yet,' she says, continuing to laugh.

Dylan smiles and starts to drink his coffee.

'Dylan?' she asks.

'Mmm-hmmm,' he says.

'You're going to help me pack up the rest of this stuff and then what?' she asks. She wasn't sure if he was still planning to go back to California.

Dylan shrugs, trying to say as little as possible, since he still wasn't quite awake yet.

'Listen, not to trivialize what happen the other night or anything, but I think you were right when you first got here. We need to talk about what this is between us. I just don't think there's time right now, but I don't want to just leave it hanging out there,' she says.

'What are you trying to say, Bren?' Dylan says, trying to keep his eyes open to look at her.

'Come to New York with me,' she says quickly. 'Come for a few days and let's find some time to talk about this,' she says.

Dylan's eyes open wide and he leans in a little just to make sure he heard her correctly.

'You want me to come with you?'

'Dylan, we can't just leave this out there. I'm not about to have this haunting me until we actually find time in our busy lives to sit down and discuss this,' she says.

'Bren, I never thought I'd hear that coming out of your mouth. You were so very against talking about this every time I brought it up,' he says.

'I know,' she says, looking down at the table. 'I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm ready to talk about it.'

Dylan thinks about what she said for a few seconds before nodding his head and taking a sip from his cup.

'Okay, Bren, I'll come, but you have to promise that we're actually going to sit down and have a conversation,' he says pointedly.

'I promise,' she says and smiles at him. 'Now, let's get this crap packed up. My realtor found someone to sublet my apartment, so I have to make sure that everything is packed up and in storage before we leave.'

Brenda gets up to pour another cup of coffee.

'Sublet?' Dylan asks confused.

'Yeah, I have to pay the mortgage somehow,' she says with a smile and walks into the bedroom to get dressed.

Dylan stares at the space she was just standing in. He had no idea that she actually owned this apartment.

'_Oh my God, she is really going to stay here forever. Why would she buy an apartment in London unless she was actually planning to never come back?'_

Dylan starts to think of how he always thought that she would come back to California and to him when this whole acting business in London dried up. He always held out hope that she would be back. After he got married, he didn't worry about it so much, but when his life turned upside after Toni was murdered, his thoughts went back to Brenda.

He feels a slight pang of sadness and hurt when he makes the connection that he was probably not part of her long term plans for life.

He sees her turn the corner carrying a few more boxes and puts them down on the living room floor.

She sees him staring at her and flashes a smile in his direction.

'Okay, let's get packing, mister,' she says and turns around to get a few more boxes.

_On the Road_

Kelly yawns in the front seat of the car as Steve sleeps in the backseat. Donna happily bops to the music playing on the radio as she drives across the border from New Mexico into Texas.

'Where are we going to stop Donna? I'm so tired and I need to eat something,' Kelly says.

'I think the name of the town is Amarillo, which is like forty minutes or so from here. Check the itinerary,' Donna says pointing to a stack of papers in between the seats.

Kelly grabs the papers and begins to read them. 'Amarillo, Texas, The Ambassador Hotel,' Kelly reads.

'That's the one, there should be directions to the hotel on there too,' Donna says.

'Just tell me when you cross over Western Street. The hotel is right on the main highway through the city,' Kelly says.

'Okay,' Donna says cheerfully.

'How can you be this excited? We've been in the car for like ever,' Kelly says.

'I slept while Steve was driving, so I'm wide awake right now,' Donna says. 'Come on, Kel, lighten up, we're driving across the country.'

Donna turns the radio volume up a little bit and starts to sing.

Kelly stares at her for a few seconds and then can't help but start to laugh.

_London_

Dylan and Brenda spend the next day packing up her apartment and putting boxes for storage and luggage to bring to New York in different piles.

Brenda stands in the kitchen and stares at everything piled up in the living room. She looks around and sees empty shelves and bare cabinets.

She sighs out loud and walks to the table to sit.

'What's the matter, Bren?' Dylan asks her as he puts one more box on the pile.

'It feels the same as the day I moved in. I was so busy with a show that I was working on that I was living out of boxes for almost a full month. The shelves were empty, the rooms were empty, a few dishes were out so that I could eat,' she tells him.

'Well, that's what it's supposed to feel like when you are embarking on a new and exciting endeavor,' he says.

'Yeah, I guess,' she says. 'Well, our flight is all set up and my agent told me that there would be someone at the airport to pick us up when we get there.'

'That's great. I think there's a few more things to get ready for storage and you should be all set to go,' Dylan says.

Dylan watches Brenda's face as she nods her head at him.

'Are you nervous?'

'Maybe a little. I've never been asked to play a part that I didn't audition for and I'm scared that they're going to take one look at me and think that they made a huge mistake,' she says.

'Brenda, they watched you perform. You didn't have to go through the craziness of auditioning and wondering whether or not you did a good job. They saw something in you that they loved and I'm sure they are very confident that you are the perfect person for this job. They wouldn't have offered it to you if they didn't,' he reassures her.

Brenda smiles and looks up at him. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'

_Washington D.C._

Brandon sits at his desk polishing his report for George. He is finally happy with the end result and puts it on his desk for review.

George comes around the corner of the cubicles with a huge smile on his face.

'Brandon, we are in!' he says.

'In where?'

'I just got an exclusive interview, on the record, with Ron Jones,' he tells Brandon.

'No way, how did you swing that?'

'Well, it seems our young man is very, very angry with his father and he is just bursting at the seams to tell someone about it,' George says.

'Grab your coat, we're going right now to meet him,' he says and picks up his voice recorder and a pad from his desk.

Brandon grabs his things and follows George out of the building.

They meet the kid in an arcade and sit down to talk with him.

'Look,' Ron says, 'I don't have a lot of time. My father only lets me out of the house for a few hours a day.'

'It's no problem, Ron. Tell us about your most recent arrest,' George says, setting up the recorder in front of Ron.

'I got stopped just outside of D.C. for a broken tail light. The cop must have smelled something because he asked me to get out of the car. He searched me and then put me in the back of the police car while he went through the car and the trunk,' he says.

'What did he find?'

'There were two pounds of marijuana and a brick of cocaine in a bag in the trunk where the spare tire usually goes,' Ron says.

'Ah, well those two hold a pretty hefty jail sentence and fine,' George says, writing on his pad.

'Yeah, the cop looked like he just woke up on Christmas morning when he pulled them out of the trunk,' Ron tells them.

'So, I was arrested and brought down to the police station. They called my dad and he came down to try to get me out.'

'What happened after that?'

'I was brought into a room and he was sitting there with some woman I had never seen before. He introduced her as my lawyer and told me that I had to do everything she told me to do.'

'I had no idea what was going to happen, but she just told me to keep quiet in court and that she had already taken care of everything for me,' Ron says.

'We read over the court case,' George says.

'Yeah, somehow she pulled some strings or something and I walked away,' he says, shrugging his shoulders.

'Look, I have to go,' he says looking at his watch.

'Thanks for talking with us, Ron,' George says shaking his hand.

'I know that I screwed up and broke the law, but I had an experience and realized that there are probably people out there doing a lot more harm than I was doing and they're not going to jail for it. I should be in jail right now and I'm not because my father is the deputy Mayor. It's just not right,' he says.

George nods his head and watches the kid walk away.

'Wow, what kind of ridiculous strings did that woman and the mayor pull to get this kid off on these charges, especially since it was his fourth drug possession offense?' Brandon says.

'I don't know, Brandon, but we're going to find out,' George says, grabbing his things and walking out of the arcade.

_On the Road_

Kelly, Steve, and Donna spent the night in Amarillo and continued the next morning on their trek.

'Okay, where's our next stop?' Donna asks Steve as she turns the car onto the highway.

Steve grabs the itinerary and tries to figure out where they were.

'Looks like if we all take shifts, we can make it to Nashville before we have to stop again,' Steve says.

'How far is Nashville from Washington?' Donna asks.

'About 10 or 11 hours. We can totally be there by tomorrow night,' Steve says with a smile.

'Tomorrow night? Really?' Kelly says from the backseat.

'Yup, almost there, Kel, are you excited?' Steve asks her.

Kelly sighs and stares out the window. 'Do you think this is a good idea?' she asks.

'Here we go,' Donna says under her breath.

'What if I tell him how I feel and he totally rejects me?' Kelly says.

'Kel, you can't worry about that. Either you want to tell him or you don't. Maybe you'll just know when you see him what your decision is going to be,' Steve says.

'Maybe, I just don't know. Maybe this was kind of rash. Do you have his number? Should we call him and tell him we're coming?'

'Kelly, stop getting all wishy-washy on us. We are not going to change the plan now because you feel like you may have made a mistake or something. We're going to surprise him and we're going to have a good time while we are there,' Donna says.

Kelly pouts in the backseat as Donna speeds the car up.

_London – the next day_

Brenda and Dylan make one last pass around her apartment to make sure that she didn't forget anything.

'Okay, that looks like everything,' she says standing in the middle of a sea of boxes with her hands on her hips.

'Well, the truck should be here any minute to pick up the things for storage,' Dylan says.

'Thank you for helping me with this, Dylan. There is no way I would have been able to get this done without you,' she says.

Dylan looks at her face and then turns when he hears a knock at the door.

Brenda moves past him to open it and sees the storage company guys standing there.

'Hello, Ms. Walsh?'

'Yes, come right in,' Brenda says. 'Everything in this pile right here goes to storage.'

She shows them into the living room and they start to move boxes out of her apartment and into the truck.

Brenda and Dylan sit at the table watching them move her things.

'After they're done, we should probably get to the airport,' Brenda says.

'Yeah, it'll probably take some time to get through security,' Dylan says.

Brenda stands as the last box is taken out of her apartment. One of the guys hands her a piece of paper and a key to the storage unit.

'Thank you,' she says and watches her things drive off down the street.

'Well,' she says closing the door, 'that's that.'

She sighs and turns her head slightly to see Dylan standing behind her. He puts his arms around her waist and whispers in her ear.

'It's going to be great, Bren, you'll see.'

She smiles and leans back into his chest.

'We better get going,' he says.

She turns around and smiles at him. 'Will you call for a taxi while I get the rest of my things out of the bedroom?'

Dylan nods and watches her turn the corner.

Brenda stands in her empty room and looks around. She grabs her phone, her carry on bag, and her scarf. She takes one more look at her room and closes her bedroom door.

'The taxi will be here in ten minutes,' Dylan says, hanging up the phone.

'Okay,' Brenda says as she wanders around the living room.

Dylan grabs his bag and puts it by the door.

'I'm going to call Iris and tell her what's going on, okay?' Dylan says.

He sees Brenda nod her head and picks up the phone.

'Hi, it's Dylan,' he says when she answers.

'Dylan! It's so good to finally hear from you. What's going on? Where are you?' Iris says.

'I'm still in London with Brenda, but we're getting ready to leave,' he says.

'Oh? Where might the two of you be going?'

'Brenda got an offer to work on Broadway in New York and I'm just helping her move over there,' Dylan says.

'She's going to be on Broadway? Wow, that's so exciting,' Iris says.

'Yeah, it is. I just wanted to let you know what was happening,' he says.

'Thank you for thinking of me. So, what's happening with the two of you?' Iris asks.

'Uh,' Dylan pauses, 'I'm not sure. I'll have to get back to you on that one.'

'Ah, I'm guessing that she's standing in the same room with you and that you don't really want to say anything out loud. Is that right?'

'Right,' he agrees.

'Okay, call me when you get to New York, sweetheart. Have a safe trip and give Brenda my congratulations,' Iris says.

'I will, talk to you soon,' Dylan says and hangs up the phone.

'Iris is very proud of you and says congratulations,' Dylan tells Brenda.

Brenda smiles at him. 'How is she doing, Dylan? Is she holding up alright?'

'Yeah, I think she is. She hasn't been feeling badly at all,' he says as they hear the sound of a horn.

'Oh, the taxi is here,' Brenda says and runs to the door. She waves to the driver and starts to move her bags out to the sidewalk.

Dylan grabs a few and helps the driver put them in the trunk. They finally get all of them in and he goes back to the apartment to get her.

He stands at the door with her and follows her eyes around the apartment. He puts his arm around her shoulders and waits for her to turn her head.

'It's time, Bren,' he says.

She nods her head and lets him lead her out of the apartment.


	7. Chapter 7

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 7**

Brenda and Dylan get to the airport and past security. They say little to each other as they board the plane and wait for it to take off.

'Dylan? Are you alright?' Brenda asks him.

Dylan nods his head in her direction, but keeps staring at the back of the seat in front of him.

'I hate the takeoff, I'll be better when it's over,' he says.

Brenda smiles at him and nods her head. 'Okay.'

The plane takes off and Brenda watches Dylan's entire body tense up. As the plane levels off and begins to fly at altitude, he relaxes a little bit.

'I'm going to nod off for a bit,' he tells her and closes his eyes.

Brenda looks at him and then down at her hands. She thought that he was acting a little strange since the taxi picked them up, but couldn't figure out what might be bothering him.

She shrugs her shoulders figuring that he'll tell her eventually if it was really important and rifles through her bag for a book to read.

Dylan starts to dream about Brenda and their former life together. He sees Brenda standing before him in her dress at the Spring Dance. They were so happy together during that time, until they found out that her family was going back to Minnesota. Even after they got back together he felt as if their relationship had changed and that it would never go back to the way it was before she broke up with him. He watches images of the good times and the bad times float through his brain.

What if she hadn't broken up with him? What if her father hadn't found out that early in their relationship that they were sleeping together? He starts to dream of a life where the tension between her family and him didn't exist. Would they have stayed together this whole time? If no one was pushing her, would she have still gone to Paris? Would she have even considered the University of Minnesota? Would she have gone with him on a tour around Europe that summer? Would she even be in London right now?

Brenda watches Dylan's body relax and then tense up over and over again as he sleeps. He jerks violently for a few seconds, but doesn't wake up. Brenda watches him for a few minutes to make sure that he wasn't going to hurt himself and when he calms down again, she goes back to reading her book.

Dylan dreams of opening the door to his house and seeing her standing there to greet him. He sees her smile and jump into his arms. He imagines them having great adventures together, traveling all over the country, all over the world, just being with each other. He hears her voice talking about subletting her apartment in London and the realization that she was probably there to stay comes back to him. He slowly comes out of his dreams when he feels a sharp pain in his chest. The pain dulls to an ache and when he hears her voice in whispering something in his ear as his eyes start to tear up.

'Dylan?' he hears her clearly say.

He opens his eyes slowly and tries to avoid showing her the emotional trip he had just been on, but can't stop one tear from rolling down his cheek.

'The plane is about to land. I tried to wake you up when the food came, but you wouldn't open your eyes,' she says, watching him wipe his face quickly.

He doesn't say anything back to her. He sits up in his seat and stares straight ahead.

Brenda doesn't ask him what he might have been dreaming about. She decides that if he was dreaming about Toni again, he might not want to discuss it with her.

They get off of the plane and walk down to the baggage area to pick up the luggage. She pulls out her phone and sees that there is a message. She dials her voicemail and after a few seconds starts to laugh out loud.

Dylan turns his head and sees her hang up the phone.

'What was that?' he asks her.

'That was Donna, she called to say that they were leaving Nashville and heading up to D.C. and that if she could find the perfect moment she was going to open the door to the car while it was moving and shove Kelly out onto the highway somewhere,' Brenda says with a smile.

Dylan starts to laugh with her. 'She must really be getting on Donna's nerves for her to say that,' he says.

'I am so glad that I am not in the car right now,' Brenda says, spotting her luggage and pulling it off of the conveyor belt.

Dylan grabs the rest of the bags and they make their way to the main terminal to find the driver.

'Ms. Walsh?' a voice says from behind them.

Brenda turns around to see a middle aged man holding her picture in his hand.

'Um,' Brenda eyes him.

'I was sent by Mr. Timmons to escort you to the Circle in the Square theatre,' he says.

'Oh, yes, of course,' she says and shakes his hand.

'This way,' he says, grabbing two of her bags and walking to the car parked outside of the airport.

They get the bags into the car and start to drive away from the airport.

'They asked that I bring you right to the theatre before stopping at the hotel. Is that alright with you?' the driver asks her.

'Of course, thank you,' she says.

Dylan smiles at Brenda, seeing the excitement in her face as the car gets closer to the city.

The car stops in front of the theatre and the driver gets out to open the door for Brenda.

'I will wait here for you and then we will go to the hotel,' he says.

'Okay, thank you,' Brenda says. She takes Dylan's hand and leads him into one of the most glamorous theatres she had ever seen.

They walk into the lobby and start looking around. Dylan looks straight up and works his way down the walls to the floor.

'Wow,' he says.

'Brenda, I'm so glad you're finally here. How was the flight?'

Brenda turns to see two men walking toward them. 'Hello, the flight was fine. It's great to be here,' she says.

'My name is Bob Shay, the producer and this will be your director, Jonah Marsh,' he says.

Brenda shakes both of their hands.

'We saw you perform in Ireland and I have to tell you, I was so impressed by your performance, I just had to find something to cast you in,' Bob says.

'Oh, well, thank you very much. This is an amazing opportunity for me and I'm so glad to be a part of it,' she says.

'I also saw you perform in 'The Glass Menagerie' a while back. I thought this would be a great chance for you to try some comedy,' Jonah says.

'I'm ready to try anything,' she says. She sees Jonah looking at Dylan, who was trying to hide behind her.

'Oh, I'm so sorry. Bob, Jonah, this is Dylan,' she says.

Dylan smiles and nods as he shakes both of their hands.

'Well, it's great that you're finally here, let me show you around,' Jonah says.

They walk around the theatre with Jonah as he shows them the set plan, the lighting plan, and a rack full of costumes.

'Oh, before I forget,' Jonah says, rifling through a folder of papers, 'here is the production and rehearsal schedule for you and a list of really good realtors to help you find a permanent home. I know how much living out of a hotel can wear on a person. You should be able to find something reasonable if you call one of these guys,' he says.

'Great, thank you so much,' she says.

'Well, I'll let you get settled in. You'll be staying at the Michelangelo Hotel a few blocks from here for the time being,' he says as they walk back up to the lobby.

'How long do I have to find an apartment?' Brenda asks.

Jonah smiles at her. 'Brenda, we want you here to vault this production into something great. I'm sure they'd be willing to put you up for,' he says and then pauses, 'ever, but if you're anything like me or any other theatre person, you'll be yearning for your own place quickly.'

Brenda smiles back at him and tries to figure out where this deep admiration for her acting was coming from. She knows that she is a good actor, but she still wasn't convinced that she deserved any of this.

She looks down at the schedule to figure out when she had to be at her first rehearsal.

'I will see you soon. Get a good night's sleep,' Jonah says and closes the door to the theatre behind them.

They get back into the car and the driver takes off to go to the hotel.

'Dylan, did any of that seem weird to you?' she asks him.

'In what way, Bren?'

'Look, I'm not saying that I'm not a good actor, because I know that I am, but he saw two shows that had me playing very serious characters and then thinks I'd be perfect for slapstick comedy. I just don't get it,' she says.

'Try not to over think it, Bren. You'll drive yourself crazy for no reason. You're a good actor, just leave it at that. You are here for a reason and whatever he asks you to do, I'm sure you'll be able to do it with no problems,' he says.

She turns to look into his eyes to see if he was just blowing smoke up her ass. He looked completely serious and sincere, so she smiles and nods her head.

The car stops in front of a beautiful hotel and the driver opens the door for her. He starts taking their bags out of the trunk and puts them on a cart the bellhop wheeled out.

'Good afternoon,' the bellhop says to them as he helps the driver put their bags on the trolley.

Brenda and Dylan exchange glances and can't help but start to laugh as they walk into the hotel.

'Wow,' Brenda hears Dylan say again, as they look around the lobby.

'I was just about to say that,' she says and goes to the counter.

'Checking in, Brenda Walsh,' she says to the desk clerk.

'Ah, yes, Ms. Walsh,' the clerk says, picking up a piece of paper. 'We've been expecting you.'

He puts the paper on the counter and points to the bottom.

'Please sign here,' he says and gets two keys for her. 'Here are your keys, take the elevator to the fourth floor and turn left down the hall.'

'Oh, thank you very much,' she says. The bellhop smiles when Brenda turns around and follows them to the elevator.

They get in the elevator and get off on the fourth floor. They walk down the hall and Brenda opens the door to the room. She walks in the see a beautifully decorated suite with every amenity she could possibly image.

'Thank you,' Dylan says to the bellhop, giving him a tip.

'Enjoy your stay,' he says and leaves the room.

'Dylan, look, there's a television in the bathroom,' she says. 'This is incredible!'

Dylan walks to the windows and opens the curtains to look out on the city. 'And a great view of the city,' he adds.

She joins him by the window and looks out on her new home. 'I can't believe I'm really here,' she says.

He puts his arm around her and smiles. 'Well, believe it, because you just made it to the big time.'

She moves to get her bags and puts one of her suitcases on the bed. She opens it and starts to unpack her things.

He watches her move around the room and sees her face light up as she discovers things about the room.

He looks back out the window and struggles with the idea of telling her what he was dreaming about on the plane. He knows that he wasn't quick enough to wipe his face and that she saw the tear roll down his cheek.

Brenda finishes with one of her suitcases and sits on the bed with a loud sigh.

Dylan turns his head and sees her stretched out on the bed with her arm over her eyes.

'Tired, Bren?'

'Exhausted. I think I'm going to take a nap or I will not be able to function.'

Dylan sees her yawn and then yawns himself. 'That sounds like a fantastic idea.'

He joins her and she curls up next to him and closes her eyes.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon and Amy sit on the couch watching some television together.

'So, what do you want to do this weekend?' she asks him.

'Um, I don't know, I'm waiting to see if George springs something on me,' he says.

'Yeah, I've been working on this stupid Senate bill for the last three weeks and it's killing me. I know that the paper needs the coverage since it looks like this is an important bill, but it's such boring work,' she says.

'Well, somebody has to do it. I'm sorry the person happens to be you, but at least it's not me,' Brandon says with a smile.

'Ha ha, very funny,' she says, playfully hitting him in the chest.

'Oh, cheap shot,' he says and tries to grab her hands.

They both start to laugh and then Brandon leans in to capture her lips.

'Mmmmm,' she says after they part, 'that's more like it.'

She leans in further and wraps her arms around his neck. Brandon breaks their embrace when his phone starts to ring.

'Hello?'

'Hi Brandon,' he hears in stereo.

'Whoa,' he says holding the phone a little bit from his head.

'Hey, Brandon,' Steve says. 'I'm with Kelly and Donna and we have a surprise for you.'

'A surprise for me? Great, what is it?'

Amy's head turns quickly when she hears a car honking loudly outside the building.

'Wait, hold on a second, Steve, I can barely hear you,' Brandon says and moves to the window to see what was happening on the street.

He moves the curtain and looks down to see Steve, Kelly, and Donna standing on the other side of the street waving at him.

'Oh my God!' Brandon says and quickly turns and runs for the door. Amy watches him move faster than she's ever seen him move and gets up to investigate what he saw. She sees him running out of the building and embracing three people standing on the street.

'This really is a surprise. What are you guys doing here?' Brandon asks after hugging all of them.

'We thought we'd take a road trip during Spring Break and what better place to be, but our nation's capital with you,' Steve says.

Brandon smiles from ear to ear. 'This is so great! Come on up,' he says and leads them into his apartment.

Brandon walks back into his apartment and sees Amy standing in the middle of the living room looking as surprised as he was when he ran downstairs.

'Oh, hey, I want you guys to meet someone. This is Amy,' he says pointing to her. 'Amy, this is Steve, Donna, and Kelly. They're my friends from California. They decided to come and surprise me, isn't that great?'

'Yeah, great,' Amy says feigning excitement. 'It's nice to meet all of you.'

Kelly's face turns a bright shade of red as Steve and Donna introduce themselves to Amy. She politely shakes her hand and then steps as far away from Amy as she can possibly get.

'Are you guys hungry or thirsty? Tell me about your trip!' Brandon says.

They sit down in the living room together and Steve and Donna elaborate on the route they took and everything they saw on the way here.

'I don't know, I have to say that driving through Memphis was probably my favorite part,' Donna says.

'Really? I thought North Carolina was nice,' Steve says.

They all look in Kelly's direction, who hadn't said much of anything since they sat down.

'Kel?' Brandon says.

'Hmm?' she says looking up at him.

'What was your favorite part of the trip?'

'Oh, I didn't really have one. The whole thing was pretty dreadful,' she says flatly.

'Kel, are you okay?' Brandon asks her. 'You look a little tired or something.'

'Oh, yeah, I'm fine,' she says trying to produce a smile for him.

Amy also sits quietly watching Brandon interact with his friends. She looks up all of a sudden and the wheels start to turn in her head.

'So, how long will you guys be staying?' she asks with a smile plastered on her face.

'Well, we don't have to be back in California until next Sunday, so we can stay until at least Thursday,' Steve says. 'If you want us to,' he adds quickly, looking at Brandon.

'You guys can stay as long as you want. There's not much room in this apartment, but we will make it work. I am just so happy that you're all here,' Brandon says looking from Steve to Donna to Kelly.

He lingers on Kelly for just a few seconds and feels a jolt when he finally catches her eye.

'Man,' Steve says, 'I really wish we could have gotten a hold of Dylan. If we get a chance to go up and visit Brenda in New York it would be like a mini high school reunion.'

'Yeah, that would have been great if we could have pulled that together,' Donna says.

'Did you call his mother's house?' Brandon asks.

'Yeah, but she said he had taken a little trip and that she wasn't sure when he'd be back,' Donna says.

'I'm sure he'll turn up,' Brandon says.

'Well, I better go and let you guys settle in and get reacquainted,' Amy says.

'Oh, so soon?' Steve asks as she passes him to get her jacket from the kitchen chair.

'Let's do dinner or something tomorrow, that way we can get to know you better,' Steve suggests.

Amy smiles again and nods in his direction. 'Sure,' she says. 'Goodnight.'

Brandon watches her walk out the door and then turns his attention immediately back to his friends.

'Have you guys heard anything from Brenda?' he asks them.

'I called her before we left this morning, but I haven't heard anything back,' Donna says.

'She was supposed to be in New York today. I hope she made it alright,' Brandon says.

'We should definitely try to go up there and surprise her too!' Steve says.

'Ah, I don't think that would be a good idea. Brenda is not too fond of surprises,' Brandon says.

'Well, we'll call her tomorrow or something. I'm sure she's really tired from the flight and everything,' Donna suggests.

'Good idea,' Brandon says. 'Well, let's break out some wine or something and then you can tell me everything that's going on at school that I am missing.'

They sit around the living room and start talking just like old times. The smile on Brandon's face seems endless as he listens to Steve tell stories about the semester so far. Kelly gets lost in her thoughts and tunes Steve's voice out as she tries to stare at Brandon without making it too obvious.


	8. Chapter 8

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 8**

_New York City_

Brenda is startled awake by the sound of a ringing phone. She turns her body over and reaches for it.

'Hello?' she says softly.

'Brenda, it's Jonah, are you all settled in?

'Oh, yeah, the hotel is amazing,' she says, trying to wake herself up enough to hold a conversation.

'Listen, the cast and some of the crew members are getting together for a late dinner, why don't you and your friend come and join us?' he asks her.

'Um, sure, that's sounds great,' she says.

'Okay, we'll be at the Cafeteria. Take the 1 train downtown to 18th street. Walk down one block to 17th and 7th, it's right on the corner,' he says.

'Got it, see you soon,' she says and hangs up the phone.

Brenda rolls out of the bed and goes into the bathroom. Dylan opens his eyes as soon as she gets up and watches her leave the room. He turns the lamp on next to the bed and sits up.

He stares at the floor for a few seconds and decides that he's going to tell her what happened on the plane.

'Brenda?'

'Hang on,' he hears from the bathroom. Brenda comes out a minute later drying her face with a towel.

'Sorry, I was brushing my teeth,' she says.

'Listen, I wanted to tell you something,' he says.

'Okay, but the director invited us to dinner, so we should probably get ready and talk at the same time,' she says with a smile.

'Dinner?'

'Yeah, the cast and some of the crew are getting together and we are invited to join them,' she says.

She starts rummaging through her clothes for something to wear, throwing things aside as she goes.

'What did you want to say?' she asks him, not really paying attention.

'Um, it can wait, it's not a big deal,' he says. 'Why don't you just go to dinner without me? I mean, this is your chance to bond with the cast and meet everybody. I don't want to be in the way.'

'Dylan, come on,' she says turning around with a shirt in her hand. 'He invited both of us to go.'

'I know, Bren, but I really think you need to focus on them and I don't think it would be very interesting for me to sit around and listen to you guys talk shop, you know?'

Brenda stands in front of him with her hands on her hips.

'Brenda, if you really want me to go, I will, but just think about what I just said, please,' he says.

She stops for a minute and then slowly nods her head. 'Okay, Dylan, you don't have to come. I don't want you to be bored or anything and you're probably right, I do need to get to know them better,' she says.

'Thank you. Don't worry, I'll be fine,' he says.

'Okay, if you say so,' she says. She finally chooses an outfit and goes into the bathroom to change her clothes.

She comes out looking fantastic and ready to take on the city.

'I'm going, I don't know when I'll be back, but I can't imagine dinner taking that long,' she says.

'Uh huh,' Dylan says with a hint of disbelief in his voice, 'have a good time.'

She walks over and kisses him on the cheek and then leaves the room.

Dylan begins to pace back and forth with his arms folded across his chest.

'What the hell am I doing here?' he says out loud. 'I'm just following her around now. This is ridiculous.'

'Okay, Dylan, let's think this out,' he says to himself. 'I'm here because I want to support her. I'm here because she promised that we would talk about what is going on between us. I'm here because,' he pauses for a second, 'I haven't yet figured out where I'm supposed to be.'

He continues to pace while reasoning out his current situation.

'I want to leave because this just doesn't feel right. I want to leave because I don't want her life to dictate mine. I want to leave because I just can't take this back and forth anymore.'

He stops pacing and looks around the room. 'I need to get out of this room for a while,' he decides.

He grabs his jacket and the key to the room and walks out of the hotel and onto the street. The night air hits his face and it feels good. He begins to walk down the street, not entirely sure where he's going, but knowing that he has to go somewhere.

He continues to walk and finally looks up to see that he's stopped in front of the entrance to Central Park. He enters the park and starts walking until he comes upon the famous Tavern on the Green. He sits on one of the benches staring at the restaurant and all the beautiful lights.

He tries to work through everything he's been feeling since flying to London to rescue her. He realizes that even on the plane ride over to England he had an uneasy feeling about being there and that feeling compounded when she said she wouldn't return with him.

He couldn't help but think that she would come around, considering their history together, but maybe that's why she was running from him. He couldn't quite place this strange connection they had now, where every time they talk about the past, they end up making love.

It wasn't the same as their lovemaking when they were actually together. It seemed a little distant and impersonal to Dylan even though there was so much passion between them while they were making love. It was almost as if they were reliving the past for just a moment, and as soon as that moment was over, they would snap back to the present.

Dylan sighs out loud, being no closer to an answer as he was when he sat down. He decides to go back to the hotel and just wait to see what happens.

He walks slowly out of the park as it closes and meanders down the street for a while. He passes right by the hotel, too preoccupied to notice. He continues to walk several blocks and finally looks up to see that he was no where near the hotel. He turns around, slowly starts walking back, keeping his eyes open this time.

He enters the hotel and gets into the elevator. He opens the door to the room and sees Brenda stop in her tracks when he comes through the door.

'Oh, thank God,' she says and runs to him. She wraps her arms around his neck and holds on tight.

'Bren? What's wrong? Did something happen?' he asks with confusion.

'Dylan, where have you been, I've been worried sick about you!' she says.

'I just went for a walk, I figured you'd be out at dinner for a few hours,' he says. 'What's the problem?'

'Dylan, I was at dinner for almost five hours and when I came back you weren't here,' she says looking over at the clock near the bed.

He glances past her to see the time and she looks back at his face in time to register the complete shock.

'I'm so sorry, Bren, I didn't even realize it was that late,' he says, staring at the clock that reads 1:45am.

Brenda sighs and sits on the bed. She puts her hand up to her forehead for a few seconds and then looks back up at him.

'You really scared me, Dylan,' she says.

He moves to sit next to her. He wasn't quite sure how it got to be that late and realizes that he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the time fly by.

'I really am sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I really didn't think I was gone that long.'

_Washington D.C._

Amy goes back to her apartment and starts pacing. She was the only one who seemed to know that Brenda and Dylan were together in London. She wasn't sure if he had followed her to New York and that was something she had to figure out quickly. With Steve, Donna, and Kelly close by and potentially Dylan, the plan was getting harder and harder to carry out.

She dials a familiar number and waits for someone to answer.

'We've got a problem,' she says.

'Ugh, what now?' a very annoyed voice says.

'Brandon got a visit from Steve, Kelly, and Donna tonight. They decided to drive across the country to surprise him and won't be leaving for at least a week,' she says.

'Well, that certainly puts a damper on things.'

'Wait, there's more,' she says. 'We know that Dylan was in London with Brenda when Beau got arrested. No one knows if he followed her to New York though.'

'Nina, we don't have time for this. It was just supposed to be Brandon and Brenda. Those two are easy to take care of, but if they're surrounded, we'll never be able to pull this off.'

'Don't you think I know that? Is there any wiggle room here? Can we contract out or something?

'I'll float the idea, but I would go on the assumption that it's just you and me.'

'Damn it! How the hell am I supposed to get around three people down here and potentially Dylan up there?'

'I don't know, but you better think fast. We're running out of time,' he says and hangs up the phone.

She slams her phone down on the table and lets out a yell.

_Brandon's Apartment – the next day_

'Okay,' Steve says, coming through the door to Brandon's apartment. 'I have located the best Chinese food in all the land.'

Donna starts to laugh and shakes her head.

'When is your woman getting here?' Steve asks Brandon.

Brandon looks at his watch and then up at Steve. 'Any minute now.'

Kelly turns her back and looks out the window onto the street. She wanted to kick herself for being stupid enough to think that Brandon wouldn't find anyone when he came here. She tries to convince herself that it's just a phase and that her feelings for him will go away, but she feels a chill up her spine and her heart skip a beat every time he looks at her.

'Kel?' Brandon says and puts his hand on her shoulder. She jumps at his touch and shivers a little bit.

'Whoa, are you alright? I didn't mean to scare you,' he says.

She gets lost in his eyes for just a moment before snapping back to reality. 'Oh, yeah, I'm fine, Brandon.'

'Okay, well, we're going to eat in a few minutes, what do you want to drink?'

'Whatever you've got is fine with me,' she says and turns to join her friends at the table.

Amy comes through the door and greets everyone. She walks over to where Brandon is standing and hands him a bottle of wine.

'Hi,' she says and kisses him when he leans toward her.

Kelly looks away quickly and busies herself with her napkin. Donna watches Kelly's reaction and her heart breaks when she sees the nervousness on Kelly's face.

'Well, let's eat,' Steve says, trying to break the silence and get Brandon to stop making out with his girlfriend in front of them.

'So,' Amy says sitting down next to Kelly, 'you all attend California University?'

'Yes and we're almost done. I can't wait until graduation, I'm so sick of school,' Donna says.

'I'll drink to that,' Kelly says holding up her glass.

'Aw, come on guys, this is a great and exciting time in our lives. Why would you want it to end so suddenly?' Brandon says.

'Shut up, Brandon,' Steve says jokingly and throws a hunk of rice at him.

Donna starts to laugh and is joined by Steve. Amy has a horrified look on her face, which Kelly absolutely enjoys. Brandon pauses for a second, looking quite offended at what Steve just did, but as he picks the rice off of his pants, grabs a fortune cookie and aims right for Steve's head.

'Oh, yeah, bingo,' Brandon says when the cookie hits Steve square in the forehead.

'So, Amy, tell us a little about yourself,' Donna says, trying to diffuse the food fight as quickly as possible.

'Oh, there's not much to tell. I graduated a year ago from American and now I work at the paper with Brandon,' she says.

'American, wow, that's a good school,' Steve says.

'Yeah, it was great being in the city and going to college at the same time,' she says.

'Did you major in journalism?' Steve asks her.

'Actually, I majored in Political Science with a minor in Journalism,' she says.

Steve stares at Amy completely impressed.

'I'm majoring in Interior Design and with a minor in Business,' Donna says. 'I really want to open my own shop one day.'

'That's great, Donna. That sounds like a really good plan,' Amy says.

'Yup, and when I start to crack up, I'll have Kelly to help me through it,' she says with a laugh.

Everyone but Kelly starts to laugh with her.

'Aw, come on, Kel, that was funny,' Steve says.

'Yeah, sure it was,' Kelly says dryly.

They continue to eat and chat about college. Amy gets more and more comfortable around Brandon's friends, trying really hard to make sure that they won't suspect anything from her. Kelly tries to say as little as possible as Steve and Donna probe into Brandon's girlfriend.

Brandon gets up and starts to clear the dishes as Steve talks about his mother. Kelly gets up to help him.

'Well, that must have been interesting, Steve, having a mother who was on television,' Amy says.

Donna starts to laugh and looks over at Steve. 'Interesting doesn't nearly cover it,' she says.

'What about your family? Where are you from, Amy?' Steve asks her.

Brandon turns on the faucet and starts to rinse off the dishes that Kelly is handing him.

'Oh, I grew up in Connecticut. My family is not nearly as interesting as your families are,' she tells them.

'Was your mom or dad into writing or anything? I heard that children pick up certain interests of their parents and such, but I've never actually witnessed that happening in real life,' Donna says.

'Oh, no, my mother stayed at home and my father worked on Wall Street. I think my brother wrote a poem or something in fifth grade, but I don't think that's enough to prove your theory, Donna,' Amy says.

'No, that doesn't sound right at all. Well, my father is a doctor and I couldn't be farther from that path if I tried,' she says.

Amy and Donna laugh together as Kelly grabs a few more plates from the table to give to Brandon.

Kelly cleans off one of the dishes and goes to hand it to Brandon, fully expecting him to take it just as he had all of the other ones that she handed him. She gasps out loud when he doesn't take it and she almost drops it to the floor. She catches it in time and looks at him with confusion. He was standing at the sink with the water running, not moving.

'Brandon,' Kelly says. 'Are you alright?'

Amy, Steve, and Donna continue to talk, not noticing what was going on in the kitchen with Kelly and Brandon.

Brandon slowly turns his head to meet her eyes. He snaps out of his thoughts for just a second and takes the plate from her.

'Um, yeah, yeah, I'm okay,' he says.

'Brandon, what's going on?'

'Not now, Kel,' he says and continues to rinse.

They finish up in the kitchen and join everyone else in the living room.

'Well, sorry to rain on the party, but I have to get up early and get down to Capitol Hill. Big day, tomorrow,' Amy says looking over at Brandon.

'Oh, yeah, the big vote, right?' he says getting up from his seat.

'Hopefully this whole thing will be over tomorrow and I can move on to something more interesting,' she says with a smile.

'Goodnight, everyone,' she says as Brandon walks her to the door. He kisses her tentatively and when she tries to deepen it, pulls back.

'Brandon, are you alright?' she asks him.

'Yeah, I'm just exhausted. I don't know what hit me, but my whole body is tired,' he says.

'Well, get a good night's sleep. I'll see you tomorrow,' she says with a wink and a smile.

He nods and watches her walk down the hallway. He closes the door and moves back into the living room to join his friends.

'Brandon, do you have Brenda's information? Do you know where she's staying in New York?' Donna says.

'Yes, I do, she sent me an email. Let me pull it up,' Brandon says, going to his computer.

He reads off the number to the hotel that Brenda gave him as Donna dials her phone.

_New York_

'Okay, Dylan, what else do you want to do?' Brenda asks him as they stand on the street outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dylan sighs and stares at her. 'Aren't you tired yet? We've been running around all day,' he says.

'Come on, party pooper, this is my only free day this week. I have to get in as much sight seeing as possible,' she says.

'Well, I wanted to go to the Met, so you have to decide where we go next,' he tells her.

'What did you think of the exhibits?' she asks him.

'I thought they were incredible. I could probably spend an entire lifetime in that place and never even realize it,' he says.

'Yeah, that's exactly how I felt,' Brenda says with a smile.

'Where to, Bren?' he asks her.

'Well,' she says with hopeful eyes.

'What?'

'I really want to go and see the arch in Washington Square Park,' she says quickly.

'Washington Square Park? Do you know how far from here that is?' he asks her.

She nods her head and then looks down at the ground.

'Let's just hop on the subway, Dylan. We'll be there in no time,' she says trying to convince him with a smile.

'Bren, it's already dark, what are you really going to see down there at this hour?' he says.

'Dylan, come on, this is the city that never sleeps!' she insists.

Dylan tries to stay serious, but can't help but smile at her pouting face.

'Fine, let's go now before I change my mind,' he says.

She laughs at his crumbling resolve and leads him to the subway.

_Washington D.C._

'She's not answering,' Donna says, hearing the phone ring on the other end.

'Hi, Bren, it's Donna. We made it D.C. yesterday to surprise Brandon and we just wanted to check in with you to see how you were. Call me back so that you can tell me about how awesome New York is! We love you, bye!' Donna says and then hangs up.

'I'm sure she's out painting the town or something,' Brandon says.

'I'm sure we can out paint her here in D.C. We should go out,' Steve says.

'Go out where?' Donna asks him.

'I don't know, what's around here, Brandon?'

'You think I have any clue? I don't have time to go out,' he says.

'Well, I guess we're just going to have to stay here and get plastered,' Steve says, downing his glass of wine.

'I'm already tired,' Donna says. 'That road trip took a lot out of me. I slept fine last night, but I'm still kind of tired.'

'Come on, Donna, don't poop out on us now,' Steve whines.

Kelly laughs for the first time in a long time as she listens to Steve try to convince Donna to stay awake.

Donna is almost startled by the sound of Kelly's laughter and watches as Kelly tries to stop, but can't.

Kelly puts her hand on her stomach trying to calm her laughter down, but as each one of them starts to laugh at her laughing, it gets worse.

After a few minutes, she's finally able to calm herself down enough to breathe normally.

'Wow, I haven't laughed that much in a long time,' she says.

Brandon turns his head in her direction and her eyes meet his just in time to see him smile brightly.

She feels her heartbeat speed up and becomes immediately self-conscious, afraid that he can see her heart pounding out of her chest.


	9. Chapter 9

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 9**

_New York_

Dylan and Brenda get off the subway and head to the street. They come up to the street and walk down 4th until they hit the park. They enter the park and start to walk down the path toward the arch.

A crowd of people were gathered around several tables and Brenda moves to see what is going on.

She sees several people playing chess and a whole bunch of people just watching. She turns and smiles at Dylan as they continue to walk into the park.

'See, I told you this park would be alive,' she says. 'Look at all these people!'

'Yeah, yeah,' he says, admitting defeat.

They make it to the arch and Brenda stops in her tracks. She stares at the marble structure and immediately sees images of the Arc de Triomphe in her mind.

'Wow,' she says, 'it's alot smaller than I thought it would be,' she says to Dylan.

He nods in agreement and gets a little closer to be able to read the inscription at the top of the arch.

'Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God,' he reads aloud.

Brenda moves from his side to inspect the beautiful marble of the arch itself.

Dylan stares at the words inscribed on the arch and says them over and over again in his head. Something clicks inside his brain, but he can't quite figure out how it all fits together.

'Dylan? Did you hear me?' Brenda says walking back over to him.

'Huh?' he says, slowly turning his head from the inscription down to her face.

'Wow, I thought I lost you there for a second,' she says with a smile.

'Oh, sorry,' he says, 'what were you saying?'

'I think I'm ready to go back to the hotel. I'm getting kind of tired,' she says.

'Okay, Bren,' he says and starts to walk toward the subway station. She puts her arm around his back and he reaches to pull her closer as they walk together.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon comes into the living room with a glass of water for Kelly. He hands it to her and sits down next to her on the floor. He turns his head to see Steve and Donna sitting up on the couch with their heads leaning back, completely asleep.

'I guess the wine really got to them,' he whispers to her.

She smiles at him and nods her head. He gets up and offers his hand to her to help her off of the floor. She takes it and he leads her into the kitchen so that they can talk.

'Do you miss being at school, Brandon?' she asks him.

'A little bit. I really miss you guys, but I am enjoying my job. It's great experience and the guy I work with, George, is a really good guy,' he tells her.

'That's great. Well, we miss you too. It's not the same without you there,' she says softly.

Brandon smiles and then drops his head.

'What's the matter Brandon? Something's been bothering you since after dinner,' she says.

He nods his head slowly and finally looks up at her.

'Ah, it's probably nothing,' he brushes off.

She puts her hand on top of his and rubs his fingers with hers.

'Come on, Brandon, you can't hide from me,' she says.

He watches her fingers move on top of his and immediately feels warm and safe at her touch.

'It's just something that Amy said tonight. She said something about a brother. When we talked about our families, she was fascinated with the fact that I was a twin and that Brenda and I were pretty close,' he says and then pauses.

He looks up at Kelly and meets her eyes. 'Kel, she told me she was an only child and I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but why would she lie about something like that and,' he voice trails off.

'And what else might she be lying about,' Kelly finishes for him.

'Yeah,' he says with a hint of sadness in his voice.

'It'll be alright, Brandon. These things have a way of working themselves out,' Kelly says. She feels a pang of jealously in her chest and tries not to let it show on her face.

'I don't know, Kelly. Something about her just doesn't feel right now,' he says.

_New York – the next morning_

Dylan wakes when he hears movement in the bathroom. Brenda comes out of the bathroom fully dressed with a piece of paper in her hand.

'Good morning,' she says to him.

'Hey, what's going on?'

'I was just checking to see what time I had to be down at the theatre. I'm supposed to get my measurements done for the costumes and then a read through with the cast,' she says.

Dylan nods his head and doesn't move from the bed.

'Bren?' he says softly.

'Hmmm,' she says still looking at the schedule.

'We really have to talk. I can't sit in this hotel room forever,' he says.

Brenda nods her head. 'Listen, I won't be at the theatre for very long today, only a few hours. After I get back, we'll shut the phone off and lock ourselves in, okay?'

Dylan stares back at her for at least ten seconds before sighing out loud and saying, 'Okay.'

She gives him a weak smile and leaves the room.

Dylan gets out of bed and takes a shower. He changes his clothes and sits on one of the couches in the room.

He wanted their conversation to be productive and he didn't want to waste a lot of time on things that didn't matter. He grabs a piece of paper and a pen from the desk and starts to write down the things that were most important to him.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon calls George in the morning and tells him that his friends are in town and asks if it's okay if he takes the day off. George tells him to have fun with them and not to worry about work.

Brandon takes Kelly, Donna, and Steve to the National Zoo and they spend half of the morning walking around.

'The pandas are so cute,' Donna says with excitement. 'I never thought I'd see a real panda up close.'

'Really? Haven't you ever been to the San Diego Zoo?' Steve asks her.

'No, Steve, I've never been,' she says.

'Me either,' Kelly says.

'Okay, next road trip, we're going to the zoo,' Steve decides. 'It's one of the most awesome places on Earth.'

Brandon laughs at Steve's enthusiasm and continues to walk toward the exit.

'Let's get going, the Smithsonian awaits,' Brandon says and dramatically lunges forward.

They all laugh and follow him to the Metro Rail.

They spend the rest of the day walking through the various Smithsonian Museums. They lose Donna for about thirty minutes in the Natural History Museum. When they finally find her she's staring with her mouth open at the Hope Diamond.

'Come on, Donna, time to go see the moon rock!' Steve says.

The three of them work together to tear her away from the Hope Diamond and move along to the Air and Space Museum.

'What's the big deal with the moon rock? That diamond is much more important,' Donna scoffs.

Kelly starts to laugh. 'Donna, you can touch the moon rock. You can't touch the Hope Diamond,' she says.

'Yeah, yeah, alright, but I bet the moon rock doesn't sparkle,' she says and follows them to get in line.

After enjoying the Smithsonian, they stop at a diner to get something to eat and then go back to Brandon's apartment.

They all slump onto the couches and close their eyes at the same time.

'What a great day,' Brandon says without opening his eyes.

'Totally,' Steve says.

Donna finally motivates herself to move off of the couch. She reaches into her purse and grabs her phone.

'Brenda didn't call us back,' she pouts.

Donna searches her address book and finds Brenda's cell phone number and hits send.

'Hello?' she hears Brenda yell into the phone after the third ring.

'Brenda!' Donna shouts, startling Steve, Kelly, and Brandon.

'Hey, Donna! Did you make it to D.C. okay? Was Brandon surprised?'

'Yeah, we got here fine and he was totally surprised. Why are you yelling?'

'Oh, I'm out on the street in front of the theatre. You called at the perfect time, we're on a break and I just needed some air,' she says.

'Well, we just had an awesome day, Bren. Brandon took off from work and we went to the National Zoo and saw the panda bears and then we went to the Smithsonian and my eyes almost popped out of my head at the sight of the biggest diamond I have ever seen. It was absolutely amazing, Bren, you have to see it! So, are you all settled in? When can we come and see you? How is it being in the Big Apple?' Donna asks quickly.

'Whoa, whoa, Donna, calm down,' Brenda says laughing into the phone. 'Everything is fine. I'm all settled in at the hotel until I find an apartment. I have rehearsals for a few hours a day right now, but the nights are free for the next few weeks. I love New York and I can't wait to get out and see everything,' Brenda tells her.

'We want to come and visit you too. Do you think you'll be able to put us up for a day?' Donna asks her.

'Do you guys really have time for that? I thought you were just going to stay down there with Brandon?' Brenda says.

'Well, we were, but you're so close! Even if we come up for the day and come back down here at night, it would be worth it,' she says.

'Whatever you want, just let me know when you're coming and I'll do what I can to get some free time,' Brenda says. 'Look, Donna, I have to go back in now, I'll talk to you soon, okay?'

'Okay, Bren, we miss you,' Donna says.

'I miss you too. Bye,' she says and hangs up the phone. Brenda walks back into the theatre and wonders if Dylan would still be around and how she would explain that if they decided to come and visit her.

'So, what do you guys think of a short day trip to New York to visit Brenda? She said that she has rehearsal during the day for a few hours, but the rest of the time is free,' Donna tells them.

'Donna, we have to leave in three days to go back to California,' Steve says.

'I know, I was just hoping that we could fit it all in, that's all,' she says.

'Donna,' Brandon says, getting up off of the couch and standing next to her, 'you know how Brenda gets when she's involved in a show. I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't be that much fun to be around anyway.'

'Yeah, maybe you're right,' Donna says.

_New York_

Dylan paces the length of the hotel room trying to reassure himself of his decision. After making a list of talking points that he definitely wanted to cover with Brenda when she returned, he had to get up and start walking around. He thought at one point that he might actually throw up with the mounting nervous feeling in his chest and stomach. As he paces he passes by the desk and accidently kicks the leg and hears the phone chime as the desk rattles.

He stares at the phone for a few seconds and then picks it up quickly. He dials a number and prays that someone picks up the other end.

'Hello?'

'Mom, I need some help,' he says desperately into the phone.

'Dylan, what's the matter?' Iris gets serious.

'I need to ask you something and you have to swear that you'll be honest with me when you answer,' he tells her.

'Okay, Dylan, what is it? I don't like the sound of your voice,' Iris says.

'I have so much going on in my head right now that I can't think clearly at all. I need you to help me get through this and find an answer,' he says.

'What is it, Dylan?'

'Mom,' he says, pausing for a few seconds, 'do you think that Brenda and I are meant for each other?'

Iris smiles to herself and sits down in her rocking chair.

'Dylan, sweetheart, I believe with everything that I know to be true, that you are Brenda are and always will be connected to each other,' Iris begins.

'What the hell does that mean? I need some real advice here, Mom, not some vague opinion,' he says, annoyed.

Iris takes a deep breath and waits a few seconds for Dylan to calm down. She decides that maybe it's time he knew what she knew. Having more information might make his decision easier.

'I really didn't want to have to tell you this, but it sounds as if you are about to fall apart, so I'm going to tell you,' she says.

'Tell me what?' Dylan asks her calmly.

'I am kind of afraid of how you will react, so I need to you sit down and listen to everything I have to say with an open mind,' Iris instructs him.

Dylan sinks down onto the couch and takes a deep breath.

'Toni showed me something when I was communicating with her that night in Marchette's study,' Iris says.

Dylan leans forward and almost stops breathing as he waits for Iris to continue.

'She let me into her world for just a brief second and let me see what she could see. As soon as I saw it, I understood right away why Brenda was brought into the entire situation,' she says.

'What was it?' Dylan says softly.

'She showed me your spirit, Dylan, and Brenda's spirit. The two were so intricately intertwined with each other that I couldn't really tell where one ended and other one began. There is no possible way that I know of for you two to not be in each other's lives in some way,' Iris says.

Dylan doesn't say a word, trying to comprehend what Iris was saying. He waits for her to continue.

'I don't honestly know whether that means that you are meant for each other in that sense of the word, but what it means to me is that no matter what you are doing or what she is doing, somehow, some way, those decisions that the two of you make affect the other one, always.'

Dylan sits and stares out the floor with his mouth open as his mother talks to him.

'Now with that being said, do not over think this situation and assume that you need to find a way to sustain a relationship with Brenda. All this means is that you are meant to influence one another in this life as you do in the spiritual life. I don't know what the interlacing of the spirits translates to in the real world, but it's got be something significant,' she says.

Dylan stays silent for another few seconds. He tries to process everything he just heard, but has a hard time connecting his thoughts.

'Thank you for telling me about that, Mom. That helps me more than you know,' he says.

'Dylan, remember, use this as a guideline, not a rule,' Iris warns.

'I understand, thank you for clearing things up,' he says sincerely. 'Mom?'

'Yes?'

'What does 'Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God' mean to you?' he asks her.

'Hmmm, let me think about that,' Iris says and takes a minute to digest the quote.

'Well, I think it means having the courage to embark on a blind endeavor, but having the knowledge that the path isn't entirely set in stone. If you are wise and honest, you will find a way to prevail over any situation,' she says.

Dylan smiles into the phone and nods his head. 'That's exactly what I thought,' he tells her.

'Thank you for your help, Mom,' he says.

'You're welcome, sweetheart. I know you'll make the right decision,' she says.

'Yeah, I feel much better about this than I did ten minutes ago,' he says and hangs up the phone.

Dylan moves to the bed and sits down. He leans over and puts his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He begins to cry at the thought of Toni seeing his spirit intertwined with someone else and how she must have felt.

'_There's a reason for all of this. I know there is.'_

Brenda leaves the theatre and starts walking back to the hotel. She looks straight ahead of her as she walks, knowing that Dylan was just waiting in the room for her to return so that they could have their talk.

She begins to really think about him and everything they had been through together. She begins to feel her body remember the night they made love before leaving London for New York. She smiles remembering his touch, his lips, and his body against hers.

She definitely wanted that part of him. They connected so completely every time they had sex and thinking about it scared her a little bit. She was a little lost without him when she returned to London from California. She remembers feeling lonely and the apartment seemed so big and empty.

They had grown up quite a bit since the last time they were a couple and she tries to figure out how being with him now would be different. She finds herself wondering whether the fear of falling so hard for him again has been keeping her from letting her feelings out.

She stands in front of the hotel and stares at it for a few seconds before going in. She promised herself that she would be honest with him throughout this entire conversation. She wanted so much to straighten this situation out so that she could stop worrying about it and focus on performing.

She stands in front of the door to her room and takes a deep breath before slowly putting the key in the lock.

She opens the door slowly and looks around the suite for him, only to find him hunched over on the bed with his head in his hands, crying.

She runs to him quickly and kneels in front of him so that she could see his face. She doesn't say anything, but puts her hands on his knees and tries to get him to look at her.

Dylan slowly opens his eyes and lifts his head. He scans her worried face and stops when he reaches her eyes.

He feels the energy from her body flow into him as he looks down at her hands. He takes a quick breath as an overwhelming jolt of emotion runs through his body like electricity. She searches his eyes for a clue, but does not find one.

He lowers his hands slowly and puts them on the sides of her face. Brenda subconsciously licks her lips as soon as he touches her and when he sees her open her mouth he drops his head quickly to kiss her.

She moves with him and is a little shocked when she does not feel the slightest bit of hesitation. She was so used to a part of her body trying to recoil itself when he touched her and when it doesn't she puts her arms around his neck.

He lifts her up off of her knees and she moves quickly to follow as he lays her down onto the bed next to him.

They lose themselves for a second and all at once the tension in Brenda's shoulders disappears and the uneasiness in Dylan's chest and stomach fade away.

Brenda struggles to get closer to him as he holds onto her body tightly. They undress each other slowly, moving together with a passion and a purpose they had never felt before. They make love to each other and as they do, Dylan feels everything fall into place.

Brenda lies in his arms with her eyes closed thinking how wonderful she felt at that very moment. He tightens his grip on her body and kisses her on the side of the head.

Brenda smiles and nestles closer to him. 'This was a very productive talk, don't you think?' she says.

Dylan starts to laugh as Brenda turns her head to look at him. She smiles and he leans down to kiss her.

'Dylan, seriously,' she says, 'I am really happy and grateful that you are here with me right now. I know that this hasn't been easy for you. I was a little scared and hesitant to get back together with you, but every day that you are near me convinces me more and more that this was meant to be,' she says.

'I wasn't so sure myself, Bren, but after walking around the city, reading the inscription on the arch in Washington Square Park, and talking to Iris, I've gained some perspective. We're not perfect and we may not know what's in store for us down the road, but I have a feeling that together, we can deal with whatever gets thrown at us,' he says.

'You talked to Iris?' Brenda asks him with confusion.

'Let's save that for another day,' he says with a smile. He pulls her on top of him and tries to tickle her to get her attention away from Iris.

She starts to laugh and tries to push his hands away from her. 'Dylan! That's unfair!' she squeals.

He watches her wriggle to get away from him and smiles. He pulls her down onto his chest and takes her face in his hands.

'You are so beautiful right now,' he says.


	10. Chapter 10

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 10**

_Washington, D.C._

The phone begins to ring as Brandon pours his first cup of coffee. He wanders slowly over to the phone with his eyes half closed.

'You sound like you're still asleep,' Amy says brightly into the phone when Brandon answers.

'I am,' he says and takes another sip of coffee.

'I take it you had fun with your friends yesterday?' she asks.

'Yes, I did. I didn't realize how much I missed having them around, but I really do,' he says, slowly remembering how uneasy he really was with her.

'Well, wake up and get yourself into the office. I can't wait to see you,' she says.

'Yup, be there shortly,' Brandon says and hangs up the phone.

He puts the phone down and turns to see Kelly pouring some coffee for herself. He sits down at the kitchen table and waits for her to join him.

'Morning, Brandon,' she says and then yawns.

'Morning, Kel,' he says and tries as hard as he can to muster a smile.

Kelly drops her eyes and sips her coffee.

'So, what's on the agenda for today, Kel?' he asks her.

'Um, I'm not sure,' she says, 'whatever Steve wants to do, I guess.'

'Do you think you guys will go up and visit Brenda in New York?' he asks her.

'I don't know, even if Donna decides she wants to go, I think I'll stay here, if that's alright with you. I'm so not up for another road trip before we have to go home,' she tells him.

Brandon finds himself smiling at her as she talks. 'That's fine with me, Kel, you can stay here as long as you want.'

Kelly returns his smile and they stare at each other over their coffee cups until Donna comes stumbling into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.

Kelly and Brandon both quickly turn their heads in Donna's direction. Donna pours herself a glass of water and joins them at the table.

'Good morning, Donna,' Brandon says, drinking his coffee.

'Morning,' Donna says, with her eyes half closed.

'So, what are your plans for today?' Brandon asks.

'I don't know yet, I'm thinking find something to eat for breakfast and go from there,' she says.

'Well,' Brandon says, getting up from the table, 'I have to get ready for work.'

He catches Kelly's eye for just a second before disappearing into the bathroom.

'Oh my God, Donna,' Kelly says, when Brandon is out of ear shot.

'What?'

'There's definitely something going on with us. The way we talked and the way he smiled at me, I just know there's something there,' Kelly says with excitement.

'So, what are you going to do about it?' Donna asks her.

'I don't know yet, I haven't thought that far ahead,' Kelly tells her as she watches Steve come cheerfully out of the bedroom.

'Wow, dressed and ready for the day already, Steve? What's going on?' Kelly asks him.

'I figured if we were going to go and see Brenda, we better leave early,' Steve says and then winks at Donna.

'Really? You weren't too excited about it yesterday,' Donna says.

'If we go up early and spend the day with her, then we can be back here by bed time and still have two days to hang out with Brandon,' Steve says.

'That's a great plan, Steve, I'm so excited,' Donna says, springing up from the table. 'I'm going to go and get dressed.'

Steve smiles and grabs the newspaper from the table.

Brandon comes out of the bedroom dressed and ready for work.

'Okay, I'm off, see you guys later,' he says and walks quickly out of the apartment before Steve has a chance to tell him what the plan for the day is.

'We can just leave him a note telling him where we went,' Steve says.

'That won't be necessary, Steve, I'm not going with you. I'm going to stay here,' Kelly says.

'What?'

'I don't want to travel anymore until we get in the car to go home. I'm going to stay here,' she says.

'Ah, I see, of course you want to stay here. You want Brandon all to yourself to make your move,' Steve says.

'Shut up,' Kelly says.

Donna comes skipping out of the bathroom and stands in front of Steve with a gigantic smile on her face.

'Okay, let's go,' Donna says. She looks over at Kelly, who hadn't moved from her seat at the table.

'Come on, Kel,' she says insistently.

'Kelly's not coming, Donna, it's just you and me for the day,' Steve says. He takes her hand, waves to Kelly, and walks Donna out of the apartment.

Kelly smiles to herself as soon as the door closes and finishes the rest of her coffee.

'Steve, what's going on? Why doesn't Kelly want to come with us?' Donna asks him as they make their way to the train station.

'Come on, Donna, wake up. She's going to be alone with Brandon for a day, without us tagging along, of course she doesn't want to come,' Steve tells her.

'Oh,' Donna says, finally realizing what was going on. 'Well, let me call Brenda and tell her that we're coming up. She can tell us where to meet up with her.'

'Good idea,' Steve says.

Donna pulls out her phone and dials Brenda's number.

The phone on the hotel nightstand begins to vibrate and ring. Brenda goes to pick it up, but is so wrapped up in Dylan's arms and the covers from the bed that she almost misses the call.

'Hello? Hello?' she says quickly into the phone as Dylan opens his eyes and starts to nip at her neck.

'Brenda? Did I wake you?' Donna asks her.

'Um, no, no, it's fine. What's going on, Donna?' she says, trying to stifle moan as Dylan continues to attack her.

'Steve and I are coming to see you today. We're going to take the train up, spend some time with you in beautiful New York City and then hop on the train back to D.C. tonight,' Donna says with excitement.

'Really, that's great! What time do you think you'll get here?' Brenda says. Dylan stops what he's doing and lifts his head to look at her.

'I think sometime around noon. Are you going to be free?' Donna asks her.

'Well, I have rehearsal until 2pm today. Do you think you guys could roam around for a few hours until I can come and get you?' she asks them.

'Oh sure, absolutely we can. We'll be coming in to Penn Station and I'm pretty sure Steve is going to want to walk around Madison Square Garden or something,' Donna laughs.

'Okay, well, if you want, you could meet me at the theatre around 2pm or I can just call you when I get out of rehearsal,' Brenda says.

'We can meet up with you, Bren, it's no problem. Where is the theatre?' Donna asks her.

'It's called Circle in the Square and it's located on Broadway and 50th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues,' Brenda tells her.

'Okay, got it, see you soon!' Donna says.

'Okay, bye,' Brenda says and hangs up the phone.

'What was that all about?' Dylan asks her.

'Donna and Steve are coming to New York for the day to visit me,' Brenda tells him slowly.

Dylan just stares at her for a few seconds before letting out a breath.

'What are we going to do?' Brenda asks him.

Dylan leans down to kiss her gently. 'Well, Bren, we're just going to have to sit back and enjoy the looks of shock and surprise on our friends faces when they see us together,' he says.

Brenda smiles and leans forward to kiss him. 'You could tell them without really telling them, you know,' she says.

Dylan gives her a puzzling look. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, I have to go to the theatre and their train is due in from D.C. around noon. You could meet them at the train station and keep them busy until I'm done with rehearsal,' she suggests.

'Hmm, that's an interesting idea,' Dylan says as it mulls it over. He smiles down at her and raises his eyebrows.

Brenda starts to laugh as he wraps his arms around her tightly and starts kissing her face and neck.

_Washington D.C._

Amy sits at her desk listening carefully for Brandon to arrive for work. She stares at her computer trying to pass the time when her cell phone starts to vibrate.

'Hello?'

'Nina, we're in,' the voice says.

'What do you mean?'

'The friends were spotted getting on a train for New York this morning, which means Brandon is on his own tonight.'

'All of them?'

'Well, we were too late to see them leaving the apartment, but we did see two blond girls and a blonde guy get on the train to New York.'

'Well, it doesn't get easier than that, does it?' she says. 'We still have to get to Brenda somehow though.'

'Yeah, but if we deal with Brandon first, Brenda will be an easier target.'

'Okay, I'll meet you at my apartment after work and we'll figure out how to get this plan moving,' she says with a smile.

'You got it, see you later.'

She hangs up the phone and hears Brandon's voice over the cubicles talking with George.

'So, you had fun with your friends?' George asks Brandon as they approach their desks.

'Yeah, it was great, thanks for the day off,' Brandon says.

'No problem, now let's get going we have a lot of work to do today,' George says.

'Amy, do you have that breakdown I asked you for yesterday done yet?' George says over the cubicle wall.

Amy gets up and walks around the wall to talk to George. 'Just putting the finishes touches on it. I just need to review it one more time and then it'll be done,' she says.

She turns her head toward Brandon and smiles. He looks up at her and gives her a weak smile before busying himself arranging the papers on his desk.

'Well, get going, Amy, I don't have all day to wait for it!' George says with annoyance in his voice.

Amy goes back to her desk quickly to finish her assignment so that she can focus on how to put her plan into motion.

_New York_

Brenda comes out of the bathroom dressed and ready to go to rehearsal. She turns her head slightly and smiles at the image of Dylan lying on the bed with both hands behind his head in his boxer shorts watching television.

She walks over to the side of the bed and leans down to kiss him.

'So, I'll see you at 2 outside of the theatre, okay?' she says.

'Mmmmm, I can't wait,' he says, putting his hand on the back of her head and pulling her closer.

Brenda kisses him and then stands up quickly. 'I really have to go now or I'm going to be late.'

She smiles and leaves the room quickly.

As Brenda walks to the theatre she can't help but smile the entire time. She couldn't remember the last time she was this happy.

Dylan stares at the ceiling for a few minutes after Brenda leaves for rehearsal. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before getting out of bed. He smiles to himself and then goes into the bathroom to take a shower.

He gets dressed and leaves the hotel to get something to eat while he waits for Steve and Donna's train to arrive.

_Washington, D.C._

Kelly mopes around Brandon's apartment while he is at work. She goes into his bedroom and sits on his bed. She stares at his clothes and his pictures and sighs.

'What am I doing?' she says out loud.

She thinks back to the way that they had been looking at each other since she arrived and can't help but shake the feeling that he might care about her more than he was letting on.

'Okay, Kelly, get it together. You're only going to get one chance at this before Donna and Steve come back and before Brandon remembers why he was going out with Amy in the first place. You can do this, you can do this.'

Kelly stands up quickly and goes right to her suitcase. She pulls everything out in a heap trying to find the perfect outfit.

She chooses a very sexy little black dress and goes into the bathroom to take a shower and get herself ready for Brandon to come back.

_New York_

Dylan walks down the steps from the street into Penn Station. He finds the track for the arrival of the train from Washington D.C. and stands at the top of the steps waiting for Donna and Steve to emerge from below.

Dylan finds it a little difficult to wipe the smirk off of his face, knowing the reaction he is sure to get when they see him.

People begin to come up the steps and he stands waiting in anticipation for them to come into view. When they finally do, Dylan hesitates for a second and then lurches himself forward to get in their direct path.

'Steve, this place is huge, how are we going to find our way out?' Donna asks, looking around the station.

'Come on, Donna, just go with it. We're in New York, so don't act like a tourist or you'll get shot or something,' Steve says.

'Steve, don't say things like,' Donna starts to say. Her eyes widen and her mouth drops as Dylan comes into view.

'Can't you even pay attention long enough to finish a sentence,' Steve says, shaking his head.

Donna tugs hard on the sleeve of his shirt.

'What now?' he asks turning his head to her with annoyance.

She puts her hand to his chin and turns his head in Dylan's direction.

Dylan stands off to the side of them watching this all take place with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

'Dylan!' Steve says with surprise. Steve takes a few steps toward him and gives Dylan and embrace.

'What the hell are you doing here?' Steve asks him.

'Steve, are you retarded?' Donna asks as she hugs Dylan. 'Dylan, you look great.'

'Thank you, Donna, I feel great,' Dylan says.

Donna takes Steve by the hand as Dylan leads them out of the train station to the street. Steve, still confused, follows like a zombie.

'Are you here to see Brenda too?' Steve finally gets out.

Donna starts to laugh and after staring at Steve for a few seconds, Dylan starts to laugh too.

'Steve, wake up, Dylan is here with Brenda,' Donna says. 'I am so happy for you. Are you guys really together?'

Dylan smiles at her and all he can do is nod his head.

Donna squeals with excitement and hugs Dylan again.

'Wait, I thought you were in Hawaii with your mom?' Steve asks.

'I was, Steve, but I left Hawaii to go to London and now I'm here in New York,' Dylan says. 'Let's go.'

Dylan starts to walk down the street with Donna. Steve follows slowly behind them working it all out in his head.

'Steve, hurry up man, or you're going to be left behind,' Dylan yells. 'So, Donna, what do you want do first?'

Donna smiles and says 'Dylan, take me to 5th Avenue right now!'

'Oh God,' Dylan says. 'You want to shop, don't you?'

'Of course I want to shop, now let's go,' Donna says. 'I really want to get Brenda a congratulations gift for landing a Broadway show.'

'Isn't that what Dylan is here for?' Steve says.

'Ah, yes, there is the Steve we all know and love. Welcome back, buddy,' Dylan says.

'We only have about an hour and a half before Brenda is finished with rehearsal, so we can't go too far,' Dylan says.

'I'm kind of hungry, can we stop for some lunch somewhere?' Steve asks.

'Oooh, yeah, let's get some food,' Donna says nodding her head.

Dylan smiles again and puts his arm around Donna's shoulders.

'Right this way, ma'am,' he says and leads them to a little diner.

_The Circle in the Square Theatre_

Brenda and the cast sit on the stage talking to each other after reading through the first Act of the show.

Jonah comes around the curtain from back stage with a large box and places it in the middle of the stage.

'Okay, folks, if we are going to do this comedy right, we're going to have to get down and dirty,' he says.

Jonah points to the box, looks at all of them, and says, 'Get dressed.'

They all stare at each other for a few seconds before one of the guys ventures forth and opens the box. He laughs and starts to pull out knee pads, elbow pads, chest pads, and helmets.

'Comedic theatre hurts, guys, let's get dressed and get to it,' Jonah says with a laugh.

'Oh my,' Brenda says as she starts to put on the pads.

'Now,' Jonah says as the cast bulks up, 'everyone knows the key to a good comedy is timing. I know that we've only been working together for a few days, but we're going to need as much time as possible to get the timing perfect.'

The cast stands on the stage all padded up waiting for Jonah to give them some instruction as to what they were going to be doing.

'Now, there are eight doors on this set people. We need to be able to open and close them in time. We need to be able to slam them perfectly in time and people need to pop in and out like the gopher game at the arcade,' Jonah tells them.

'We're going to play a little game to try to get this timing down and hopefully by the time we're done you'll be able to anticipate every move of your fellow actors. Now, I want Brenda and Tony center stage and everyone else, get behind a door,' he says.

Brenda steps up with Tony while the other actors take their places behind the doors of the set.

There was a basic framework of the set already built with only the doors installed as the finished pieces. The walls weren't even covered, but the director insisted that the doors be available for use during the first week of rehearsal.

'Okay, for our first game, we're going to start a round of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' starting with Tony, then Brenda, and then clockwise around the set from behind the doors. When it's your turn to sing, pop in, sing your lines, and pop back out when your verse is finished. Brenda and Tony, I want you to face the audience and listen carefully to where the voices are coming from. Memorize who is behind which door while keeping in time with the song,' Jonah explains.

After some laughter from behind the set and an incredulous look on Tony's face, Jonah moves off of the stage and sits in the center seat of the audience.

'Begin,' he says loudly.

Tony looks at Brenda, shrugs at her with a smile on his face, and then stares straight ahead to the back wall of the theatre and starts to sing.

_Luckys, NYC_

Dylan, Steve, and Donna enjoy a very filling lunch at Luckys Famous Burgers, a few blocks away from the theatre.

'That has to be one of the best burgers I have ever had,' Donna says, wiping her mouth.

'I'm sure Nat would love to hear that little tidbit of information,' Steve says with a smile.

'Don't you dare, Steve. Nat's burgers are my all-time favorites, but this one definitely wins points,' she says.

'Your secret is safe with us, Donna,' Dylan says, sipping his coffee.

Dylan gets up to pay the bill while Steve and Donna collect themselves.

'We better start walking, Brenda will be out of rehearsal in about 10 minutes,' Dylan says.

'Can we walk in a roundabout way to the theatre? I'm going to need some help digesting all of the food,' Steve says, rubbing his stomach.

Donna laughs and follows Dylan out of the diner.

'So, how long has this thing with Brenda been going on and how long were planning to keep it from us?' Steve asks as they walk.

'It's none of your business how long it's been going on, and I'm pretty sure we were going to keep it a secret as long as possible,' Dylan says.

'Well, I think it's wonderful. It's great to see you smile again, Dylan,' Donna says sincerely, as she puts her hand on his shoulder.

Dylan returns the smile Donna gives him as they cross the street and the theatre comes into view.

'There it is,' Dylan says, pointing it out.

'Wow, it looks really nice from the outside,' Steve says.

Donna starts to fidget as they get closer and closer to the theatre.

'Donna, what's going on?' Steve asks her.

'I'm just getting excited! I can't wait to see Brenda,' she says with a smile. 'It seems like forever since the last time we saw each other.'

'Here they come now,' Dylan says pointing to the bunch of people walking out of the theatre.

Donna emits a shrill sound as she finally sees Brenda walk out. Brenda turns her head immediately in their direction and starts to walk quickly toward them.

Donna runs and almost knocks Brenda over when she throws her arms around her.

'Whoa, Donna,' Brenda says with a laugh. 'It's good to see you too.'

Donna starts to laugh as she slowly lets go of her friend.

Brenda takes a few steps and embraces Steve.

'How was your trip?' Brenda asks them.

'It was a lot quicker than I thought it would be,' Steve says.

'Look, we don't have a whole lot of time to spend with you, so let's get going,' Donna says, grabbing Brenda's hand.

Brenda starts to laugh and gives Dylan a sideways glance.

'Hold on a second there, Donna,' Dylan says. He steps forward, puts his hands on both sides of Brenda's face and kisses her.

Before Brenda has a chance to properly kiss him back, she feels Donna pulling her in the other direction.

Donna smiles quickly at her as Brenda turns her head in her direction and quickly walks away from the guys.

'Oh my God, tell me everything!' Donna says as she pulls Brenda down the street.


	11. Chapter 11

**A Window to the Past – Chapter 11**

_Washington D.C._

'Alright, George, so what's next on the list?' Brandon asks him, rolling his chair into George's cube.

'Well, I'm not making much progress on the Jones case, but I think I may have a lead with someone who may be powerful enough to get that kid out of going to jail,' George says with a worried look on his face.

'What's wrong?' Brandon asks him.

George turns his head and looks at Brandon. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

'As we all know, politicians are crooked and will do almost anything to stay in power, right?'

Brandon nods his head and waits for George to continue.

'I think the deputy Mayor called in a favor with a few of his old school buddies,' George says, handing Brandon a photo.

Brandon looks at the photo and immediately recognizes a much younger version of the deputy mayor standing with four other guys in front of a brick building.

'Who are these guys?'

'I'm not sure about all of them, but that one,' George says, pointing to one of the guys, 'is Vincent Spagnolo.'

'Spagnolo?' Brandon says, confused.

'Jeez, Brandon, don't you ever read the news?' George says with a laugh. 'Spagnolo was the mastermind behind the botched murder of Nick Venezia, head of the largest mob family in New Jersey.'

Brandon's eyes open as wide as they will go as he stares down at the picture in his hand.

'Wait a second here George,' Brandon says, 'Are you telling me that the deputy mayor was and may still be friends with a hit man for the mob?'

'Can't get anything past you, huh?' George says with a smile. 'I think he's still knows and is friends with several hit men from the mob.'

'Do you really think that a guy like Spagnolo would even care about getting some snot-nosed kid out of doing jail time?'

'I don't know, Brandon, they may not be connected at all, but we're going to find out,' George says.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Start looking around for him in the area. Here is a list of known aliases that he's used in the past,' George says, handing him a piece of paper. 'Make sure you check the city and any surrounding states and let me know if something interesting pops up.'

'Okay, I'm on it,' Brandon says.

_New York_

Brenda walks down the street with Donna's arm wrapped in hers and the boys following closely behind.

'So, you guys had a pretty uneventful drive from California then?' Brenda asks.

'Yeah, next time anyone wants to get from one side of the country to the other, we're flying,' Steve says.

Steve leans closer to Dylan and says almost under his breath, 'There is nothing worse than spending several days in a cramped car with two women who have no interest in you whatsoever.'

Dylan laughs and then shrugs when he sees Brenda shoot him a look.

'So, Bren, where are we going?' Steve asks her.

'You'll see.'

Brenda turns the corner and walks her friends down one more block. She slows her pace a little and waits for Donna to notice where they are. It takes several minutes and then Donna stops short.

Steve tries as hard as he can not to crash into her as she stands in the middle of the sidewalk with her mouth open.

'Damn it, Donna, why did you stop? I almost ran you over,' Steve says.

'Shush,' Donna says and just points across the street.

'Oh, man, Brenda, you had to bring us here?' Steve whines.

'I will not let Donna leave this city without at least seeing Saks,' Brenda says with a smile.

'I love you, Brenda,' Donna says as she walks like a zombie across the street to the door.

'Dylan is going to take Steve to FAO Schwarz and give us some time, okay?' Brenda says.

Dylan nudges Steve up the street and waves to the girls.

'Well, looks like it's just you and me, Steve,' Dylan says.

Instead of walking up to the toy store, Dylan steers Steve across the street to Rockefeller Center. They find a bench and sit down.

'So, how's Brandon?' Dylan asks.

_Washington D.C._

'George?' Amy says walking into his cube.

'Yeah?'

'Look, I totally forgot, but I have an appointment this afternoon and I have to leave a little early. Is that okay?'

'Oh, sure, just make sure you're down at the Capitol Building tomorrow morning,' George says.

'You got it,' Amy says. She goes back to her desk and grabs her purse. She stops by Brandon's cube on the way out.

'Hey, are we getting together later?' Amy says, putting her best smile on her face.

Brandon looks up and immediately gets a knot in his stomach. 'Uh, yeah, sure,' he says, trying to hide how uncomfortable he felt.

'Do you want to meet me for dinner at the Old Ebbit?' she asks.

Brandon shrugs and tries to smile. 'Sure,' he finally gets out.

Amy continues to smile at him as she leaves the office. She goes directly to her apartment and picks up the phone.

'I got out of there early and I made plans to get him out of the apartment. Get over here now so that we can plan this out and get this over with, okay?'

'Fine, I'll be right there,' the voice says.

Ten minutes later the door opens and a large, broad shouldered man walks in.

'Great, you're here,' she says, 'let's get to work.'

_New York_

'Brandon seems to be doing alright,' Steve tells Dylan. 'He seems to like his job and has already found a girl to be with, so how bad could it be?'

Dylan smiles and shakes his head. 'Well, that's not surprising at all. It sounds exactly like Brandon.'

'Yeah,' Steve says.

'How did Kelly take the news?'

Steve gives Dylan a quizzical look and then quickly realizes that anything Brenda knew, he probably knew too.

'I'm not sure, actually. I think she decided not to come with us so that she could make a move on him while we're gone or something.'

'Yeah, probably, he's the only one of us left you know,' Dylan says with a smile.

Steve starts to laugh out loud. 'So, how have you been? How did you and Brenda hook back up?'

'Ah, it's a long, boring story, Steve. The only thing that matters now is that we're together and with everything we've been through recently, I think we're stronger than ever,' Dylan says with confidence.

'Well, that's nice to hear. I hope you guys stay that way for a long, long time,' Steve says.

Dylan looks sideways at his friend, trying to figure out if he was for real. Hearing something like that come out of Steve's mouth was not normal. Dylan puts his hand up to Steve's forehead.

'Are you feeling alright?' he says.

Steve laughs. 'I'm fine,' he says swatting Dylan's hand away from his head. 'My point is the less drama there is within this group, the better off we are and the less I have to sit around and listen to Kelly and Donna talk about it.'

Dylan smiles and turns his head in time to see the girls exit the store across the street. He stands up and walks to the sidewalk and tries to wave them down. Brenda finally notices them and comes over to where they are sitting.

'Okay,' Steve says, putting his arm around Donna's shoulders, 'please, oh, please tell me we are done shopping for the rest of the time we are here?'

_Washington D.C._

Brandon finishes working for the day and after not finding much so far on his mob guy, he reluctantly gets up from his desk and leaves the office to meet up with Amy. He had already planned to just walk in, tell her that he couldn't have dinner with her because he was still entertaining his friends and then go home.

He stands outside of the restaurant and takes a deep breath. He really did like her, but he just couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable knowing that she either lied to him or to his friends about her family.

He walks in and sees her sitting at the bar. She turns her head just as he walks in and smiles.

'I almost thought that you forgot about our date,' she says, looking at her watch.

'Yeah, sorry about that I got hung up on this research I was doing,' Brandon says.

'It seems to me that you're not too into this, Brandon,' she says. 'Is something bothering you?'

Brandon puts his hands into his pockets and shuffles his feet.

'Listen,' Amy says, putting her hand on his arm, 'why don't we get out of here and go back to your apartment and talk about it, okay?'

Brandon lifts his head to look at her and considers her offer. She looked sincere and he slowly nods his head in agreement.

_New York_

Dylan and Brenda walk Steve and Donna back to the train station.

'I had such a wonderful day,' Donna says. 'I'm so glad we decided to come up here.'

Brenda smiles at her friend. 'Me too, Donna,' she says, giving her friend a hug.

'Well, at least it wasn't a total bust, I did get to see Madison Square Garden and eat some great food,' Steve says.

'And hang out with Brenda and Dylan,' Donna adds with a smile.

Steve shakes Dylan's hand and pulls him into a hug. He moves to Brenda and leans down to hug her too.

'Have a safe trip back and tell Brandon and Kelly that I miss them,' Brenda says.

'You got it,' Donna says and waves goodbye.

Brenda and Dylan watch them disappear down the steps to catch their train. Dylan takes her hand and slowly weaves around the bustling station and back up to the street.

_Brandon's Apartment_

Kelly waits patiently for Brandon to return from work. She sits in front of the window looking out onto the street. She smiles to herself and goes over in her head what she planned to say to him.

She starts to think of his face and his smile. She thinks about the first time they met and the first time they kissed. She closes her eyes and tries to recreate the moment. A jingling at the door wakes Kelly from her fantasy world. She quickly moves to the sofa, crosses her legs, and pulls the edge of her dress higher up on her thigh.

She tosses her hair to one side and smiles seductively toward the door as it opens. Kelly's expression quickly turns to confusion as she sees a very large man enter the apartment. He doesn't notice her right away as he looks around the kitchen to find a good spot to hide out.

Kelly tries to scream but nothing comes out of her mouth. He turns quickly at the sound of her breath and charges toward her.

He grabs her arm and pulls her up. He puts both of her arms behind her back and holds them firmly so she cannot move.

'What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in New York with the rest of your pathetic friends,' he grunts at her.

'Ouch, you're hurting me,' Kelly finally chokes out. 'Who the hell are you and what do you want?'

'Damn,' he says mostly to himself, trying to figure out what to do with her. He pulls a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket and closes them around her wrists.

He throws her back down on the sofa and pulls out his phone. He sends a quick message, grabs Kelly, and pulls her toward the door. He takes one of Brandon's coats that was hanging next to the door and throws it around her to hide the handcuffs.

'One peep out of you and,' he stops, pulls a gun from his jacket and points it at her forehead.

Kelly swallows hard and feels the tears well up in her eyes as he shoves her out of the apartment and down the stairs.

Brandon tries as hard as he can to stay engaged in the conversation with Amy as they walk back to his apartment to talk. He barely notices when she stops talking to look at a message that came through her phone.

'Um, Brandon,' she says and stops walking.

'Yeah?'

'Do you, um, want to maybe get some take out or something to bring back with us? I'm kind of hungry,' she says, looking around for a restaurant they could duck into for a while.

Brandon feels the annoyance fill his chest and tries not to let it show on his face. He didn't event really want to be with her right now and if they get food he would have to spend even more time trying to be nice.

'I don't know, I don't really have an appetite right now,' he lies.

She notices a sandwich shop and just grabs him and pulls him inside. 'I need to get some food or I'm going to pass out and then we won't have a chance to talk,' she says, not looking at him.

Brandon sighs and shakes his head. 'I'm going to use the restroom. I'll be right back,' he says, glad for an excuse to leave.

As soon as he is out of sight, she opens her phone and sends a message. Now that the plan was completely screwed, they would have to account for not getting Brandon alone and abducting one of his friends. She decides not to wait around for him and runs out of the store.

Brandon comes out of the restroom and walks toward the line to find Amy. When he doesn't see her, he steps out onto the street to see if she was waiting outside.

'Great, she took off,' Brandon mutters to himself and starts walking slowly back to his apartment.

Amy enters her apartment to find Kelly sitting on her couch in handcuffs, gagged, and blindfolded.

'I cannot believe that this is happening,' she says to the large man standing next to Kelly.

'Look, we were misinformed. She was there when I went into the apartment. What was I supposed to do?'

Kelly sits quietly trying to place the voice she just heard. It sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't place where she had heard it before.

'You've got to call and tell her the situation, Nina. We're running out of time,' the man says.

'Fine, I will.' She picks up the phone and dials quickly.

Kelly leans closer to where the voices are coming from to try to gain as much information as possible about why she was taken from Brandon's apartment.

'It's me,' Kelly hears the voice say into the phone. 'Look we've got problems down here. The apartment wasn't empty and it's getting to the point where I think Brandon might be getting suspicious.'

Kelly straightens her posture when she hears the voice say Brandon's name. She tries to gasp, but ends up gagging from the cloth in her mouth.

'_Oh my God, it's Amy! That's the voice!_' Kelly thinks to herself. '_But didn't that guy call her Nina? Brandon was right, she's definitely hiding more than just that lie about her family_.'

'I don't know what to tell you. This plan has fallen apart at every turn and now we have a hostage,' Kelly hears.

'Well, you should have thought about that when you hired us,' Nina says louder and with more anger.

'I'm sorry, but what exactly do you want us to do at this point?'

'Fine, we'll meet you there,' Nina says and slams the phone down.

'Grab her,' Kelly hears as the front door opens. The man grabs her arm and yanks her to a standing position and shoves her forward out of the apartment.

As Brandon enters his apartment the phone begins to ring.

'Hello?'

'Brandon, it's George,' he hears the voice say.

'Hey George, what's going on?'

'I have a lead on Spagnolo and I need to you meet me there.'

Brandon jots down the address of a bar as George tells him. 'Okay, I'll be right there.'

He rushes back out of the apartment and doesn't notice that there was no one there to greet him.

_New York_

Dylan and Brenda make their way back to the hotel. They enter the room and both flop face down on the bed at the same time.

'Oh, what an exhausting day this has been,' Brenda says into the comforter. She turns her head toward Dylan.

'How was rehearsal?' he asks her, stroking her back with his hand.

'Physical,' she says. 'The director had us in almost full body pads and made us do physical acting exercises the entire time.'

'Physical acting exercises?' Dylan asks with a puzzled look on his face.

'Yeah, comedies on the stage are funny most of the time because there are actors slipping on the floor, falling down stairs, getting hands closed in doors, that kind of thing. If you don't practice them, it comes off as very fake and not funny.'

'Oh, okay, like the Three Stooges, but on stage?'

Brenda laughs softly. 'Yup, just like that.' She leans in to kiss him, but is interrupted by the telephone ringing.

'Hello?' Brenda says. "Oh, hi, how are you?'

Dylan waits patiently while Brenda talks on the phone. He moves closer to her and starts to play with her hair.

Brenda closes her eyes as she feels Dylan's hands in her hair. She feels a tingling sensation throughout her body and tries to focus on what the person on the other end of the phone is saying.

'Really? Wow, that's great news. When can we see it?' Brenda says, snapping back to reality.

'Great, we'll meet you there.'

Brenda hangs up the phone and turns around to Dylan.

'The agent found us an apartment and since it's empty, we can see it right now,' she says with excitement.

'Wow, that was quick,' Dylan says.

'Not that I don't like this hotel, but I need a real kitchen,' Brenda says, getting up from the bed.

_Washington D.C._

Donna and Steve step off of the train, still talking about their day in New York with Brenda and Dylan.

'I can't wait to tell Kelly and Brandon about Dylan!' Donna says.

'Do you think we should tell them, Donna? I mean, shouldn't we let Brenda tell them?' Steve asks her.

'Oh, come on, Steve, I'm sure that Brenda knows that I won't be able to keep quiet about it.'

Steve nods his head and smiles as they get up to the street and start walking back to Brandon's apartment. He listens to Donna recount every moment they had that day and doesn't notice that there is someone following them until she is grabbed from behind.

Steve turns quickly and feels a fist hit him squarely in the face and then everything goes black.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 – A Window to the Past**

'Are either of you two getting a déjà vu feeling, because I certainly am,' Steve says to Kelly and Donna.

Kelly nods and looks around at the room they were locked into and sighs. 'At least it's not a basement dungeon like the last time,' she says.

'I thought we dealt with all of this crap already. Marchette is gone and we've all moved on with our lives. What the hell could this possibly be about?' Donna says with anger and frustration.

'Maybe there was some unfinished business to take care of or something,' Steve says.

'Well, at least we know that the poser that was with Brandon is directly involved. I bet you anything she wasn't too happy to see us when we showed up unannounced,' Kelly says.

'Yeah, she did leave rather quickly that night, but I just figured it was because she was nervous or something, not because this foiled a plan to do something horrible to Brandon,' Steve says.

'This isn't the first time we've been wrong about people that try to get close to us and I'm sure it won't be the last. Although, I'm not sure why any of us trust anyone at this point,' Kelly says, dejected.

They hear a door slam outside of the room that they were in and rush to the door to see if they could hear anything. They hear muffled footsteps and voices, but nothing comes in clear.

'Nina, they're here,' the man that took Kelly says.

'Great, let's get this over with,' Nina says.

'So, please explain to me how this situation became completely and utterly unraveled,' a new voice says.

'Well, it didn't start with us, it started with Beau,' Nina says. 'What happened in London?'

'Never mind that, I'm talking about how you had no idea that you were about to be descended upon by the crew from California,' the voice says.

'No one informed me that they even left California, how was I supposed to know that they were going to just show up? I'm not a psychic,' Nina protests.

'You waited too long with Brandon. You should have had him wrapped around your finger by now and all you have is room full of his friends and suspicions that will prove to be true,' the voice says with anger.

Nina looks at the floor and then back up quickly. 'Look, I didn't sign up for this. None of the things that happened were my fault and you didn't give me what I needed when I asked for it in order to make this work. You're on your own. You can take care of the rest of it from here,' Nina says with indignantly.

'Steve, can you make anything out? I can't understand a word,' Donna says.

'Nope, not a thing; just muffled voices. Damn,' he says, stepping away from the door.

Nina begins to walk toward the door.

'I wouldn't do that, Nina. You signed a contract and you have yet to fulfill it.'

'Leave her alone. She's right, this isn't what we signed up for,' the man says and starts to follow, as Nina reaches the door.

Kelly and Donna jump back away from the door when the sounds of gunshots ring out from the next room.

Steve runs to them and covers them with his body, all the time hoping that the walls of this room were made out of more than drywall.

_Washington D.C._

'Do you really think that place is run by the mob, George?' Brandon asks, as they near his apartment.

'I don't know but the source said that they had spotted Spagnolo in there a few times over the last month,' George says.

'The other patrons and the bartender were looking at us kind of strangely the entire time we were there,' Brandon says.

'Yeah, I noticed that too. I'm sure it was nothing. We don't exactly look like their normal clientele,' George says with a laugh.

'Well, it's a start at least,' Brandon says, 'He was in the area recently, which means there may have been some covert meeting of some kind with the deputy mayor. I'll see if I can find out where he's been, maybe that will lead us to something.'

'Okay, I'll keep looking for someone who may have seen him recently and hopefully we can meet in the middle,' George says. 'Goodnight, Brandon.'

'Goodnight,' Brandon says and walks up the stairs to his apartment.

He opens the door expecting to see Kelly, Donna, and Steve waiting for him but he sees no one. He turns on the lights and calls out to them, but hears nothing in return.

He checks for their suitcases and sees that Kelly's is the only one in the apartment.

'_Maybe Steve and Donna decided to stay in New York with Brenda for another day_,' he thinks to himself.

He grabs the phone and calls Brenda.

_New York_

Brenda and Dylan had just returned to their hotel room after seeing the vacant apartment with the agent.

'Well, it was nice, but kind of small,' Dylan says as he takes off his jacket.

'They're all going to be on the small side, Dylan. I can't afford anything bigger, I mean, this is Manhattan! An apartment the size that I have in London would be worth a few million here,' Brenda says with a smile.

'I don't think I like New York so much anymore,' Dylan says, pulling her into his arms.

They kiss slowly and wrap their arms around each other. Brenda pulls away suddenly and looks at him.

'Dylan, can I ask you something?'

'Anything,' he says.

'You were living in Beverly Hills, then you came to stay with me in London, then you went to live with Iris in Hawaii,' she starts.

'Uh huh,' Dylan says, not understanding where she was going with this.

Brenda pauses and softens her facial expression. 'After this show, if I don't get another job out here, I would go back to London. Where do you want to go?'

Dylan blankly stares at her for a few seconds. He loosens his grip on her body and takes a step backward to sit on the bed. She joins him and takes one of his hands with hers.

'I never really thought about that, Bren,' he says.

'I left Beverly Hills for a reason and I chose to not return for a reason. Those reasons aren't really valid anymore, but I do have a career to think about now and,' Brenda pauses, stroking his hand, 'and you.'

The phone begins to ring and Brenda sighs heavily with annoyance. Dylan sighs also, but with relief. He had never wanted to be interrupted by anything as bad as he did right then.

Brenda gets up and stomps to the phone. 'Hello?' she says, annoyed.

'Uh, hi Bren, did I catch you at a bad time?' Brandon says.

'Oh, hi Brandon, no it's fine. What's up?'

'I was wondering, did Steve and Donna decide to spend one more day up there with you?' Brandon says with hope in his voice.

'No, Brandon, they left hours ago on the train back to D.C., why?' Brenda says.

'Well, they haven't gotten here yet. Their suitcases aren't here. Kelly stayed behind to hang out with me, I think, and she's not here either,' Brandon says.

'That's weird. They definitely should have been there by now. The train ride doesn't take that long. Maybe Kelly met them somewhere for dinner or something?' Brenda asks, starting to get worried.

'I don't know. If she did, I'm sure she would have called me at work or left me a note,' Brandon says.

Brenda begins to feel her stomach clench and her heart starts beating very quickly.

'Brandon, I'm not getting a good feeling about this,' she says. Dylan gets up and stands in front of her as soon as the words leave her lips.

'Neither am I, Brenda. Are you somewhere safe? I have a feeling the past might be coming back to bite us on the ass again.'

'I'll be fine, Brandon. I'm worried about you. The last time this happened you were taken too, remember?'

'Brenda, what's going on?' Dylan says firmly.

'What was that voice? Brenda, are you okay?' Brandon says quickly.

'Yes, yes, Brandon, I'm fine. Listen, call the police and report them missing, okay? Tell them everything that happened with Marchette and that you're afraid that you might be next. Stay there as long as possible so that you're safe,' Brenda says.

'Bren,' Brandon starts to say.

'No, just do it and do it now. Call me from the police station and tell me what is going on so that I know where you will be,' Brenda says and hangs up the phone.

'Dylan, Donna and Steve never showed up back at Brandon's apartment and when he got home, Kelly wasn't there either. He thinks something bad has happened to them,' Brenda says as she slowly sits on the bed and holds her hand to her stomach.

'What is happening? I thought we were done with this,' she says and begins to cry.

Dylan drops down to his knees and puts his arms around her waist.

'Brenda, I'm sure they're fine. Marchette hasn't contacted any of us nor have we seen any signs that he's watching us,' Dylan says, trying to calm her down.

'Really? What about Beau? What if he wasn't just obsessed with me, what if he was working for them?' Brenda says.

Dylan looks away from her face and considers what she had just said. It's entirely plausible that Marchette had a few lackeys following them, but didn't seem to add up in Dylan's head.

'I'm not sure about Beau, but I'm sure that what happened before Christmas scared him to the core. I don't think it's him,' Dylan says.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon hangs up the phone and tries to decide what to do next. He knows that the sensible thing would be to call the police, but there were other possibilities that Brenda didn't' know about yet. What if this was mob related? What if Spagnolo knew who he was and that he may be connected to the deputy mayor and his son?

Maybe the train was delayed and Kelly did leave the apartment to get food or go shopping. What if he was completely and totally overreacting?

Brandon picks up the phone and calls the train station just to make sure the train arrived. '_If the train arrived, then something happened to them._'

He is told by the operator that the train they would have been on arrived on time. Brandon begins to freak out and calls George.

'George, it's Brandon, if you're there please pick up the phone,' Brandon says frantically to George's answering machine.

Brandon hears a click and breathes a sigh of relief.

'Brandon? What's going on? Are you okay?' George says.

'Listen, does anyone else know that we were looking for Spagnolo and what the connection to him is?'

'Well, you know, I know, Jeff from research knows, and Amy knows,' he says.

'Son of a bitch,' Brandon says out loud without thinking.

'What? What's going on?' George asks.

'I'm not sure yet, but I think Amy has something to do with it. Do you know anything else about her?' Brandon asks him.

'I'm sure you know much more than I do, Brandon. Aren't you guys dating or something?'

'Not anymore and I think everything she told me was a lie just to get close to me.'

'Brandon, you're not making any sense,' George says, worried.

'Two of my friends that came here from California are missing. They went to New York to see my sister and according to her, they got on the train to come back here, but never made it. The third friend stayed behind to hang out with me and she is also missing,' Brandon tells him.

'Missing? Brandon, no one knows where Spagnolo is at this time. The mob wouldn't get this involved unless you had something that they wanted and don't you think they'd be after me too?' George says.

'They may be, George. Do you have anywhere else you can stay for the night, just in case?'

'Brandon, you're really starting to freak me out.'

'I know, just be careful okay? I don't know what this is, but if it is related to this story I don't want you to be taken off guard.'

Brandon hangs up the phone and starts pacing around his apartment. He begins to put the pieces together and thinks about how Amy was trying desperately to get him to have dinner with her. Maybe they came to bug his apartment or something and found Kelly here.

Whatever was going on, he had to find out how she was involved. He grabbed his coat and started to walk to Amy's apartment to confront her directly.

_New York_

'Dylan, what are we going to do? We can't leave Brandon down there by himself?' Brenda says as her resolve begins to quickly dissipate.

'Brenda, I need you to focus. It's entirely possible that this is something completely unrelated to what happened to us already,' Dylan tries to reason.

'Dylan, come on, be serious. The first thing that happened when it became apparent that we were not cooperating was that they kidnapped Donna, Kelly, Steve, and Valerie from our house,' Brenda says.

'I know and do you remember what happened next? They got Brandon and then I showed up and then you showed up. They got us all in one place. They could have killed us all if that was the plan from the beginning. I don't know who is behind this or what connection they have to us, but we got lucky the first time,' Dylan pleads with her.

Brenda thinks for a second about what Dylan just said. He was right in the fact that Marchette knew that if he got a hold of enough of them, the others would come running to their defense.

'So, you're saying that whoever is behind this is trying to do the same thing Marchette did, but the reasoning might not be as clear cut as the first time,' Brenda says slowly.

'Exactly, we have no idea what we're up against this time. We need to stay here,' Dylan finally says.

Brenda nods slowly and lowers herself back down onto the bed. 'I feel so helpless right now.'

Dylan sits next to her and puts his arm around her shoulders. 'I know baby,' he whispers.

She leans into him and thinks about Brandon.

Kelly, Donna, and Steve get up from the ground after the noise of the commotion outside of the door subsides. They stand with their backs against the back wall terrified.

'Clean that up,' the voice says. 'I guess we'll have to finish this ourselves. Do we know where he is right now?'

'He was seen leaving his apartment about 10 minutes ago.'

'Good, let's cut him off before he gets to wherever he is going.'

'Um, what about the hostages?'

'What about them? They're locked up. They'll be fine in there until this is over. We don't want them witnessing it anyway.'

A door slams shut loudly and Kelly, Donna, and Steve jump at the sound.

Donna is the first to venture forward. She gingerly puts her ear against the door and listens.

'Nothing,' she says. 'There is no movement at all out there.'

Steve starts looking around the room to see if maybe there was a way out or something in there he could use as a weapon of some kind.

_Washington D.C._

Brandon gets to Amy's apartment building and goes inside. As he knocks on her door, it opens slightly. Brandon slowly pushes the door open and peers inside.

'Amy?' he calls, but hears nothing. He walks into the apartment and closes the door behind him. He starts looking through the drawers in the kitchen and living room with no success before moving to the desk in the bedroom.

He pulls out a book from the top drawer. Two smaller pieces of paper fall from the book as he thumbs through it. Most of the pages are blank, but the ones that have writing on them are just series of numbers and letters.

He opens one of the papers that fell onto the desk and sees a phone number. The second piece of paper has the name of the newspaper that he works for written on it.

He gets up and goes into the living room to turn on Amy's computer. '_Maybe a reference to the phone number will be in here somewhere_.'

He searches through recent documents that were opened and websites that Amy had gone to for any reference to the phone number on the paper. He opens the internet browser and puts the number into a search engine.

'What the hell?' Brandon says out loud with confusion. He picks up the phone and dials Brenda's hotel room.

'Brenda, it's Brandon,' he says when she answers.

'Brandon, what's going on? What did the police say?' Brenda asks.

'I'm not at the police station, Brenda, and before you freak out on me, let me explain,' Brandon says quickly.

When she doesn't interrupt him, he continues. 'The girl that I've been seeing is involved in this somehow. I thought it might have to do with the mob here in D.C. because my paper is investigating a story that is leading in that direction, but after what I found, I don't believe that anymore,' Brandon says.

'I found a phone number in her desk and looked it up on the internet. You're never going to believe what I found,' he finishes.

'What did you find?' Brenda asked with anticipation.

'The number is a cell phone from California. I didn't recognize the area code right away, but it's definitely from California and it's probably from somewhere near Beverly Hills. I think we're all in danger again, Brenda. I don't know who is behind it or why they're after us, but I do think that they are after us,' he says.

'Us as in the group of us or us as in you and me?' Brenda asks.

Brandon takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. 'Us as in you and me,' he says.

'Damn,' Brenda says, almost to herself. 'Listen, Brandon, I have something to tell you and I need you to digest it quickly so that I can get to my point, okay?'

'Okay,' Brandon says with confusion.

'Dylan and I are back together. He was in London with me and now he's in New York with me,' Brenda says quickly.

She gives Brandon a few seconds to think about it and then continues. 'Dylan made a good point about this situation and how it parallels what happened with Marchette before Christmas. Marchette kidnapped our friends and then you in order to get what he wanted, which was me, Dylan, and Iris to his house. I think they're trying to do the same thing this time,' she says.

'You and Dylan, huh, Bren? Well, that was predictable, wasn't it?' Brandon says with a smile.

Brenda laughs at his assessment and waits for him to continue.

'Dylan's right, this is exactly what happened last time. Maybe you should stay in New York,' Brandon says.

'I don't know, Brandon, they came after us in London too. I think there may be people here following us as well. We can't stay here and we can't go to D.C., but we have to go somewhere,' she says.

'Brenda, don't jump to conclusions or anything. We're just speculating here, okay? Just continue doing whatever it is that you're doing. If they want to grab you, make sure you and Dylan are together and that you are surrounded by other people at all times,' Brandon says.

'Well, that shouldn't be hard to do in a city of eight million people,' Brenda says.

'Look, Bren, I have to go. If I find out who this number belongs to, I'll contact you, okay?' Brandon says.

'Brandon, be careful,' Brenda warns. 'I love you.'

'I love you too, Bren,' Brandon says and hangs up the phone.

Brenda hangs up the phone and looks at Dylan.

'What did he say?' Dylan asks her.

'He thinks the girl he was seeing is involved and went to search for clues. He found a phone number on a piece of paper in her apartment and looked it up. It's a cell phone from California, Dylan,' Brenda says.

'What? That doesn't make any sense,' Dylan says.

'He wants us to stay in crowded places and make sure that if anyone tries to take us that there are other people around,' Brenda says.

Dylan goes to the door and locks both locks.

'Okay, let's pack up our stuff. If someone is after us in connection with this, we can't stay here anymore,' Dylan says.

'Right, and Dylan?' Brenda says tentatively. 'I think you should call your mother.'

'The door opens in, Steve, you're not going to be able to break it down from the inside,' Kelly says.

'I'm not going to try to break down the door, I'm going to try to break through the wall,' he says.

He picks up a piece of wood that was lying in the corner of the room and starts hitting the wall next to the door with it.

'I can't believe this is happening to us,' Donna says. She brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them.

Kelly kneels down next to her and puts her arm around Donna's shoulder.

'We're going to get through this, Donna. Everything will be alright,' Kelly reassures her.

'You don't know that, Kel,' Donna says with tears in her eyes.

'Yes! It's working,' Steve says as he admires the dent in the wall that he made.

'See, Super Steve is going to save us,' Kelly says with a bit of sarcasm.

Donna can't help but laugh as she lays her head on Kelly's shoulder.


End file.
